How To Stay at Waldorf Astoria and Visit Airport Lounges for FREE
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How It Started
Back when I was planning our Tokyo Disney trip, I signed up for Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card to save money on breakfast at Hilton Tokyo Bay. Amex Surpass grants you Hilton Honors Gold status that comes with free breakfast for two at most Hilton hotels. The annual fee for the Surpass card is $95 but breakfast savings were way over $150, so signing up for the card was an easy decision.
The other offer of the Aspire card that I really liked is a Priority Pass Select membership. It comes with 10 visits per year, but, as we love lounge-ing, we used up these visits pretty quickly, so I was looking into upgrading our Priority Pass membership to unlimited visits. And this is why…
How It's Going
I upgraded my Hilton Honors Amex Surpass to Hilton Honors Amex Aspire.
This card does have a quite high annual fee of $450, but the benefits that come with the card more than offset the cost.
Why I love My Hilton Honors Amex Aspire Card
The first two reasons are very obvious:
Weekend Night Reward
The card comes with one weekend night reward every year plus an additional night after you spend $60,000 on purchases on your Card in a calendar year. You can use this reward at almost any Hilton property in the world (see the list of exclusions here).
And this is exactly how we stayed at Waldorf Astoria Orlando and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills for absolutely FREE. There are no fees, taxes, or surcharges to pay when you use the reward certificate. One night stay at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills starts at $800, so this perk alone more than offsets the annual fee cost.
Note: Amex Surpass card also comes with a free night reward, but you have to spend $15,000 a year to earn it.
Priority Pass Select Membership
With this membership, you and up to 2 guests get unlimited visits to more than 1,300 airport lounges around the world. You can see the list of the lounges here.
We love escaping the hustle and bustle of the airport to chill in a lounge while snacking on yummy treats (and sipping sparkling wine 😉).
This benefit is worth over $500.
Hilton Honors Diamond Status
With this status, you get room upgrades, daily food & beverage Credit (U.S. hotels only) or Continental Breakfast (non-U.S. hotels), bonus points, executive lounge access, and more!
Our favorite is definitely room upgrades. We were recently upgraded to a suite at Waldorf Astoria Orlando and… a Presidential suite at Hilton Universal City!
You can see the full list of Hilton Honors benefits here.
14 Points on Hilton Stays & 7 Points on Dining and Travel
These extra points make it so much easier to accumulate points to redeem for free stays at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio.
$250 Hilton Resort Statement Credit
Each year of you get up to $250 in statement credits for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts.
$250 Airline Fee Credit
You will also receive statement credits of up to $250 per calendar year toward incidental air travel fees like luggage fees and seat selection.
And More!
There are so many more benefits that come with the Amex Aspire, like car rental and baggage insurance, concierge service, return protection, and more. See the details here.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the Hilton Honors Amex Aspire benefits more than offset the annual fee. If you are traveling often and want to stay at luxury resorts and visit airport lounges for free and get other savings on your travels, I highly recommend this card.
You can earn 150,000 Hilton Honor points when you use my referral link below. Full disclosure: I will get 15,000 points if you use it. Win-win!
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