A few weeks ago I wrote a post about finding a new credit card to maximize my husbands day to day spending. Choosing a New Credit Card to Maximize Points for Travel. He mostly purchases gas, sometimes dinner out and home improvement stuff. So a card with a big return on gas and general spend would be ideal. The Hilton Honors Amex Surpass by American Express offers 12x points on Hilton stays, 6x points on gas and dining and 3x on all other purchases. A really good fit for his needs.
But…I considered that those points can only be used for Hilton stays AND that our focus should be earning Membership Rewards Points for our airfare to Portugal next year. So the Plan WAS to take the slower Tortoise path with an Amex Gold Card instead of the excitable Hare path with the Hilton Surpass.
Surprise…..I just couldn’t let that offer go. The Surpass card also comes with a limited sign up bonus of 130,000 points after $4,000 in spend in the first 4 months. Nice! But the real prize is the free Priority Pass Lounge membership. The time is perfect with all of our upcoming fall travels to easily meet the bonus spend requirements and be able to use the Lounge access.
I have 2 single night hotel stays that I hadn’t booked yet. One for our layover in Oakland and one for Dallas. I had been considering IHG Hotels for both of them, but there are really good Hilton options in both locations. That means we can use them toward our spend PLUS earn 12x Hilton points per dollar spent on the rooms.
I did a rough calculation and determined that if 75% of the spend requirement is regular purchases at 3x points and 25% is at the 6x points level (not even considering 2 hotel stays at 12x points), we would also earn around 15,000 additional points. Adding that to the 130,000 points sign up bonus, and we should finish out the initial 4 months with over 145,000 points. That gives us some really great hotel options for next years trips.
We still have time to work on Membership Rewards points before our Portugal Trip next fall. But we are really going to enjoy the Lounge access in Honolulu in just two short months
Yep….I HAD a plan. It was very sensible and responsible but the loaded Hilton Honors American Express Surpass offer was just too tempting for me to pass up.
The 130,000 point Limited Time Sign Up Offer for this Card ends 8/28/19.
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