Template:Credit Cards with Elite Hotel Status

  Credit Card Reference, Hotel Strategies

Almost every hotel credit card gives you automatic elite status with that hotel program—just by having the card.

The Hilton credit cards (and the Amex Platinum card) give you Gold or Diamond status with Hilton, which provides a free breakfast benefit. With other hotel programs, you’ll only get a boost to the points you earn from a stay, and some possibility of being upgraded to a preferred room (better view, higher floor).

Other than possibly the Hilton cards, we don't recommend getting a hotel credit card just to get elite status. But, if you decide to get one of these cards for the free night certificate, or you wind up with one of these cards for a year because you were collecting the signup bonus, you’ll get at least some extra benefits from the card’s elite status benefit. These benefits aren't that fantastic, but they are better than nothing.

Getting free breakfast at Hilton

Hilton Gold status entitles you to free continental breakfast (for two) at every brand in the Hilton program or a free snack at any brand that already provides free breakfast to everyone. The only exception is the Hilton Grand Vacation Clubs.

For example, you can take advantage of this benefit at every Hilton, Doubletree, Hilton Garden Inn, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Curio collection, Tapestry Collection, and Tru hotel.

• While you are only entitled to continental breakfast, many hotels will give you a full hot breakfast or breakfast buffet instead, and many other hotels will allow you to upgrade to a full breakfast for a small extra charge. For example, a hotel may provide access to a hot menu item for an $8 additional charge per person and you'll still get free juice and coffee.
• If you don't want breakfast, you can choose 1,000 bonus points instead. At most hotels brands where everyone gets free breakfast, such as Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, and Hampton, Gold members get their choice of free snacks or small quantities of Hilton points instead.
• Gold status also comes with some other nice benefits, such as a better chance of upgrades to a slightly nicer room and a 80% bonus on points earned for stays. Along with Silver members, Gold members get their 5^th night free on award reservations, 2 bottles of free water, and elite tier rollover nights. Hilton Status Benefits.
• The Hilton Aspire card comes with Diamond status, instead of Gold. Diamond status gives you guaranteed access to any executive lounge at Conrad, Curio, Hilton, DoubleTree, and Tapestry Collection hotels, an enhanced snack / bonus points benefit, a 100% points bonus (instead of 80%), a potentially better upgrade, and a 48-hour room guarantee.

Temporary(?) Hilton Breakfast Changes

Until the end of 2021, Hilton Gold and Platinum members will receive a food & beverage credit instead of the "free breakfast" benefit at hotels within the United States. Benefits at international locations remain the same. For each room, you'll receive up to two per-person credits each day. Credits amounts are $25 each at Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR, $12-15 each at most other brands, and $10 each at Hilton Garden Inn.

Credits can be used at any restaurant, bar, or market at the hotel or for room service, will be applied automatically to your hotel bill, and need to be used each day (they won't roll over to the next day on your stay).

Unfortunately, these credits are too low to pay for a full breakfast at the many hotels that historically provided a hot breakfast or buffet to Gold and Diamond elites (or to feed more than 2 people per room at the hotels which choose to comp entire families). In many cases, the credits won't even be enough to purchase the "continental" breakfast that is the official elite benefit, especially at resort hotels, hotels in expensive locations, and hotels that have "continental buffets".

On the positive side, a flexible food and beverage credit provides can be used for a drink and/or snack (or a lunch or dinner discount) if you don't want breakfast or if your breakfast would be reimbursed as a travel expense.

Hilton is touting this as a response to guests who want more flexibility. Hopefully in the future, they will give guests the choice of free breakfast or a flexible credit, so that guests that want the breakfast won't be required to pay the potential difference in cost.

If you are traveling alone, it makes sense to always book your room for two people. There is a good chance you'll wind up receiving two credits per day. Template:Credit Cards with Elite Hotel Status/Box

Which credit card to get

There are three different credit cards that provide automatic Hilton gold or diamond status.

Option 1: The simplest path to Gold status is to get the Hilton Surpass or Business Card

• Both cards cost $95 per year and come with a valuable signup bonus.
• Along with Gold status, you get 10 free Priority Pass airport lounge visits per year. The 10 visit passes can be useful if you don't already have a Priority Pass membership from another card (such as the Sapphire Reserve), or you already have a Priority Pass membership, but need a way to occasionally bring in some additional guests. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card.
• If you spend $15,000 in a calendar year, you'll get a certificate that you can use for a free weekend night at any hotel in the Hilton program You can use the certificate for a free night at very expensive hotels such as Grand Wailea in Hawaii, the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, the Conrad in Tokyo, or the Waldorf Astoria in Park City, or at one of thousands of other Hilton family hotels. If you decide to get this card for the free breakfast benefit, spend enough money on your credit cards each year, and are willing to deal with the extra complexity, it is worthwhile to spend enough to earn the certificate. Otherwise, you don't want to use the card for any of your spending. Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificates.
• The two cards are nearly identical, but the business version of the card provides typically less valuable bonus categories and the opportunity to earn a second free night certificate (with a whopping $60,000 in annual spending).
• If you are collecting signup bonuses, you'll want to postpone one of these card until later. It will take up one of your five Amex credit card slots, slowing down your ability to collect other Amex signup bonuses. In addition, since you are likely to be need to focus most of your spending on meeting signup bonus requirements, it will be hard to spend enough on the card to earn the companion certificate. Get the Platinum card instead. You can get a different Platinum card each year, offsetting the high annual fee with a valuable signup bonus. When you run out of Platinum card versions, you can reconsider getting a Hilton card instead. Dealing with the Amex 5 Credit Card Limit.

Option 2: A more complicated, but potentially more valuable, option is to get the premium Hilton Aspire Card

It costs $450 per year—$355 more than the Hilton Surpass Card. For that extra $355, you get several valuable extra benefits.

• An annual $250 credit for Hilton Resorts. You can only use this credit when you stay at a "resort" property, but you can use it to pay for your room and not just for incidental charges.
• Hilton Diamond status, rather than Gold status. Diamond status gives you access to any Executive lounge, a better chance of getting a good room upgrade, and a 50% bonus on points from stays (rather than a 25% bonus). Hilton Status Benefits.
• A free night certificate every year, without a spending requirement. This saves about $150 in potential lost rewards, when compared to needing to spend $15,000 per year with the regular or business cards. Even better, you get your first free night certificate when you initially get the card, rather than on your first anniversary. Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificates.
• A full Priority Pass membership. Instead of just getting 10 visits, you'll get unlimited access to Priority Pass lounges, with the ability to bring in two guests per visit. However, unlike the Priority Pass memberships that come from other credit cards, the memberships that come from Amex credit cards no longer provide access to restaurants and other alternative locations that participate in the Priority Pass program. You'll only get access to the program's more traditional lounges. And there is a significant chance that you will already have a membership from another card, removing the value from this benefit. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card.
• A $250 annual airline incidentals credit. It only pays for extra fees, like baggage fees and inflight food and beverage purchases, rather than for airplane tickets. And you can only use it on a single airline that you choose at the beginning of the year.

Most people find it hard to naturally take full advantage of these Airline Incidental credits. If you choose the airline you fly the most, chances are that you already have ways to avoid many of the applicable charges (via the airline's credit card or elite status). If you choose another airline, you are unlikely to naturally incur $250 in charges. However, there are some tricks to make it easier to take advantage of. Get Full Value from Your Airline Incidental Credits.

If you think you can get good value from the Airline Incidental credit and the Hilton Resort credit, it is worth spending the extra money for the Aspire version. But for most people, we recommend keeping things simpler and sticking with the Surpass Card. And if you are collecting signup bonuses, take advantage of the Amex Platinum card’s benefits for the first three to four years.

Option 3: Amex Platinum Card

If you decide to collect credit card signup bonuses (which we highly recommend), you are likely to be get Hilton Gold status via the Amex Platinum Card.

Among the many valuable benefits of the Amex Platinum Card is Gold status with Hilton. Unfortunately, the annual fee on the Platinum Card is $695 ($595 for the Business version). Even with all its benefits, we wouldn't normally recommend paying this much per year to hold onto this card.

However, there are several different versions of the Platinum Card. While American Express limits you to one signup bonus per card per lifetime, each version of the Platinum Card has been counted separately. There is a chance this changed as of July 1st, but it isn't clear yet. In any event, you can always get the personal card one year and the business card one year.

The annual fee is worth it for the initial year because you get a very lucrative signup bonus along with the card's regular benefits. Even the lowest signup offer of 60,000 points is valued at $900 and higher offers are often available.

If you sign up for a different card each year, you can maintain continuous access to Hilton Gold status and the other Platinum Card benefits (such as Centurion Lounge access) for a few years, while receiving a signup bonus each year to offset the hefty annual fees. There are currently four versions of the card which are easily accessible. If they don't introduce more variants, that's up to four years of subsidized access to the benefits. Once you've exhausted your options, you can decide whether it is worthwhile for you to continue to hold onto the Platinum Card, whether you want to switch to one of the other options, or whether you aren't getting enough value from the Hilton Gold benefits.

For most people, signing up for credit cards, just to receive travel benefits, good reward earning rates, or lucrative signup bonuses, isn't an irresponsible thing to do. It won't kill your credit rating—it just might improve it. But, if you have a problem with credit, or you aren't organized enough to avoid unwanted credit card fees, you'll need to stick to our other strategies for discounted travel. For more information, see our Credit Cards 101 guide. Template:Credit Cards with Elite Hotel Status/Box

Elite status benefits from other credit cards

The elite status benefits you get from other hotel credit cards aren’t usually worth their annual fees. However, you might want some of these cards for other reasons, or you might wind up temporarily getting some in order to collect their signup bonuses. If so, the elite status benefits are a somewhat useful side effect of getting the card.

Several of these cards have no annual fee. If you wind up getting any of them, you might as well hold onto it; or if you are thinking of cancelling a hotel credit cards, in some cases you can downgrade to one of these instead. It doesn't cost anything and you'll get at least some benefits, even if they are typically lackluster. Despite not having any out-of-pocket costs, we wouldn't typically recommend directly signing up for these cards. You are usually better off reserving your credit card signup "slots' for cards with more valuable benefits or signup bonuses.

Marriott Credit Card Guide	The Marriott Boundless and Marriott Business card (and several other no longer available Marriott and SPG cards) give you 15 elite night credits, good enough for Silver status, which gives you a 10% point earning bonus on hotel stays, priority late checkout (upon availability), and free enhanced internet access. The 15 elite night credits can also help you reach higher level status. Note that you are only entitled to 15 credits from a single credit card per account. $95-125 annual fee. . If you spend $35,000 with one of these cards over the year, you’ll be upgraded to "Gold" status, which will get you an increased point earning bonus, 2pm late checkout (upon availability), and the chance of a preferred room upgrade. But, these benefits aren't worth spending that much money on this card.
Marriott Credit Card Guide	The premium Marriott Brilliant card gives you Gold status, which gives you extra points or welcome amenity per stay, a 25% base point bonus, and an enhanced room upgrade and 2pm priority late checkout (upon availability). The card has a $450 annual fee, but comes with a $300 credit towards Marriott purchases, which drops the effective annual fee to $150. And it gives you a free night certificate that works for nights up to 50,000 points, rather than one which is only good up to 35,000 points.
Hyatt Credit Cards Guide	The Hyatt card gives you Discoverist status, and the card help you earn higher level status. Hyatt Discoverist status gets you 10% bonus points on stays, a free bottle of water, 2pm late checkout, and the possibility of a small room upgrade when available.  While you might want this card for the free night certificate, it isn’t worth it for the status benefits alone. $95 annual fee. Hyatt Status Benefits The Hyatt card can also help you reach higher level elite status. Just by getting the card, you'll receive 5 elite night credits, and you can earn an additional 2 credits for every $5,000 you spend on the card. For example, if you spend $15,000 per year to earn the second free night certificate, will get a total boost of 11 elite status credits. Note that the Discoverist status you get with the card doesn't give you any elite night credits, so doesn't provide an additional boost towards higher level status (or "milestone" certificates). You just get the 5+ credits described above. Generating credits through spending is an expensive way to qualify for high level Hyatt elite status, but it can be very worthwhile if you only need to augment the nights you are earning from your paid and award stays. For example, if you wanted to spend your way to Globalist status, with no real Hyatt stays (which is an unlikely scenario), you would need to spend $140,000 with the card. But, if you "only" needed 15 nights, you would "only" need to spend $25,000. If you still have the older version of the card, with the $75 fee, you'll still get Discoverist status, you won't earn any qualifying nights, but you'll have the option to earn Explorist status by spending $50,000/year.
United Credit Card Guide	The United Club card also gives you Hyatt Discoverist status. But this card costs $525 per year. So this is only interesting for people who are interested in this card for its United lounge club membership and other benefits.
IHG Credit Card Guide	The IHG Premier card gives you Platinum Status, which normally requires 50 nights and gives you 50% bonus points on your stays and the occasional minor room upgrade. While Platinum status doesn’t really get you very much, it is a ‘high level” rather than a mid-tier status, making it good for matching to other hotel programs when the opportunity arises. While you might want this card for the free night certificate, it isn’t worth it for the status benefits alone. $89 annual fee. IHG Status Benefits
IHG Credit Card Guide	The IHG Traveler card will give you Gold status, if you spend $10,000 per year. Even if you wind up having this card, it is not worth using it for $10,000 in spending to qualify for the nearly worthless Gold status.
Best Western Credit Card Guide	The Best Western Premium card gives you Platinum status, which gets you a 15% points bonus on your stays and some possibility of a minor room upgrade. $59 annual fee. Best Western Status Benefits
Best Western Credit Card Guide	The no-annual-fee Best Western Rewards card gives you Gold status, which gets you a 10% bonus on points.
Choice Credit Card Guide	The Choice card gives you Gold status. Choice Gold status gets you a snack or beverage at Comfort Suites, a 10% bonus on points, and the ability to book reward nights 50 days out (rather than 30). $95 annual fee. Choice Status Benefits.
Hilton Credit Card Guide	The no-annual-fee Hilton card gives you Silver status, which gives you a 15% bonus on points, access to a 5th night free on reward stays, complimentary access to fitness centers, and two bottles of water at most hotels. It is a great option if you want to stop paying the annual fee on one of the other Hilton credit cards, and don't want to lose the 5th night free option. Hilton Status Benefits If you spend $20,000 with this card during a year, you’ll get upgraded to Gold status (which comes with free breakfast). However, if you want Gold status, you are better off just paying the annual fee for the Hilton Surpass or Business card, instead of wasting $20,000 of spending on this card.
Radisson Rewards Credit Card Guide	The Radisson Rewards Premier Rewards card gives you Gold status, which gives you a 25% bonus on points for your stay, some possibility of a minor room upgrade, early check-in, late check-out, and an in-room welcome gift. $75 annual fee. The no-annual-fee Radisson card doesn't give you any level of elite status. Radisson Rewards Status Benefits
Wyndham Credit Card Guide	The Wyndham card gives you Platinum status, which entitles you to a preferred room, early check-in, and late check-out (upon availability). Perhaps the most valuable benefit of Wyndham Platinum status is that it can be automatically matched to Total Rewards Diamond status, which entitles you to free parking at Caesar's and Harrah's family of casinos and an annual free trip to Atlantis Bahamas. $75 annual fee. Wyndham Status Benefits.
Wyndham Credit Card Guide	The no-annual-fee version of the Wyndham card gives you Gold status, which gives you a preferred room and late checkout (upon availability). It is a good option for "downgrading" the regular card, if you don't want to maintain access to the annual free Atlantis Bahamas trip. Wyndham Status Benefits.
Sonesta Hotels Credt Card Guide	The Sonesta Card gives you elite member status which entitles you to free lounge access or continental breakfast plus other benefits such as room upgrades, late checkout, and early check-in (upon availability) and a 15% discount on dining and resort amenities. The card cost $75 per year (waived initial year). Sonesta Benefits. Getting Marriott Platinum or Hyatt Globalist Status While it doesn't require any spending to get valuable Hilton status via a credit card, the only way to use a credit card to get really valuable elite status with Marriott (Platinum) or Hyatt (Globalist) requires spending a lot of money. For Marriott, you can get Platinum status by spending $75,000 on the Bonvoy Brilliant card (or the discontinued Ritz Carlton card). Otherwise, their cards only get you a 15 elite night boost towards Platinum status (you can't combine the 15 elite night credits from multiple cards). For Hyatt, you get 5 elite night credits just for having the card and another 2 credits for every $5,000 you spend. Earning Globalist status through just these credits would require spending $140,000. But, if you are earning at least some credits with paid or award stays, you'll need to spend less. With both options, elite status lasts until February after the end of the following year after you earn status. For example, if you earn status in June 2019, your status will last the rest of 2019, all of 2020, and the first two months of 2021. So, if you can hit these spending limits quickly, you'll receive up to two years of high level status. Hotels 101: Get the Best Deal on Your Hotel Room Boost Your Hotel Status Get Free Hotel Nights with Credit Card Certificates Take Advantage of Luxury Hotel Programs for Valuable Extra Perks Credit Cards 101 Template:Credit Cards with Elite Hotel Status/Page