Final days: Earn up to 150,000 Hilton points and a year of ExpertFlyer Premium, a TPG exclusive offer
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Even if travel isn't on your radar now, it's still an opportune time to secure a hefty haul of points and miles. One of the best ways to do that is by opening a new travel card.
Here's a generous welcome offer you can add to the list -- and it's a TPG exclusive that ends on Jan. 27, 2021.
Both the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card not only include substantial points bonuses (up to 150,000 points on the Aspire) but also a unique TPG-only offer: a one-year subscription to ExpertFlyer Premium, worth up to $100. ExpertFlyer is owned by TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures.
The information for the Hilton Aspire card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
For more TPG news and offers delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
Whether you are new to ExpertFlyer or you're already a flight award search whiz, signing up for a new Hilton card just got a little more lucrative. Let's take a closer look.
TPG exclusive offer
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
The current welcome bonus on the Hilton Aspire is for 150,000 Hilton Honors points after you use your card to make $4,000 in eligible purchases within the first three months of card membership.
While that itself is a solid bonus, TPG readers can now also earn a one-time $100 statement credit after using your new card to purchase an ExpertFlyer Premium annual subscription ($99.99 plus applicable taxes, followed by automatic renewal) within your first year. Again, the bonus ends on Jan. 27, 2021.
As for the card perks itself, if you want instant top-tier Hilton Diamond elite status (and the benefits that come with it) along with a lucrative free weekend night certificate, up to $250 annual airline fee credits and up to $250 in Hilton resort annual statement credits, then this is the card for you.
Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic restricting travel, unexpired free weekend night certificates — plus those issued through 2021 — can now be used on any night of the week.
The Aspire does have a $450 annual fee (see rates and fees), but you can easily recoup that cost from the existing card perks.
Related: Review of the Hilton Aspire card
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
Meanwhile, the mid-tier Hilton Surpass card is offering 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $2,000 in purchases with your new card within the first three months of card membership.
Again, like with the Aspire, TPG readers can now exclusively earn a one-time $100 statement credit after using the card to purchase an ExpertFlyer Premium annual subscription within the first year.
The Surpass comes with Hilton Gold elite status, giving you perks such as room upgrades, free breakfast and more. You can also earn a Weekend Night Reward after you spend $15,000 on purchases in a calendar year. The Surpass card has a $95 annual fee (see rates and fees).
Related: Review of the Hilton Surpass card
What is ExpertFlyer?
If you're new to ExpertFlyer, it’s one of the best -- and most advanced -- tools around for travelers and frequent flyers. It not only helps travelers search for award availability but also has access to airline schedules, live seat maps and more.
One of the best perks of ExpertFlyer is the ability to set specific alerts so that you’re automatically notified when an award becomes available, allowing you to redeem your points or miles right away before the award availability you want is gone.
Related: Beginner's guide to ExpertFlyer
While ExpertFlyer has a free subscription tier, you only will get access to one Seat Alert at a time. This is an alert that tells you when a specific seat opens up on a flight (for instance, you have a preference for an aisle seat at the front of the plane).
Related: How to get a better airplane seat with ExpertFlyer
Meanwhile, a Premium subscription includes the ability to search for award and upgrades across dozens of airlines -- including unlimited searches across flexible dates with a total of 200 alerts, covering seats, flight availability, awards and upgrades, and aircraft changes.
Sneak peek: New ExpertFlyer beta
Here's the kicker: ExpertFlyer has been totally redesigned and enhanced for a better user experience. And a Premium subscription will get you first dibs at accessing it. While we'll soon publish a full guide to some of the latest and greatest features, here are a few new things that you can expect:
- All-new design and easier-to-use experience
- Married segment alerts: From both the Flight Availability and Award & Upgrade results, any itineraries with connections will now allow you to create alerts for all the segments combined.
- Route Alerts: At the top of the Flight Availability or Award Upgrade results pages, you’ll see a banner that prompts you to create an alert for all flights. It allows you to create an alert for a specific day, airline or class for any nonstop or direct flight, not just one specific flight.
- SMS Alerts: You can now enter a mobile phone number on the My Account page to get true SMS alerts.
- Seat Alerts as a separate search: Seat Alerts are now created via their own page that checks to see if the seat type you want (i.e. any aisle seat) is already available on the flight. If it isn’t, then you are given the opportunity to create a Seat Alert.
- A new mobile experience: The mobile version will have the same user interface as the desktop version. It also uses the same URL, no more /mobile for the mobile version.
- Tips and in-line help as you use ExpertFlyer
Existing ExpertFlyer Premium subscribers can go to the beta version directly by clicking here. Log in with the same email and password, which will validate your existing subscription and copy over your preferences, saved searches and alerts.
Note that with this beta, existing searches and alerts will transfer over from the existing ExpertFlyer site only once. (Your searches and alerts will not sync again after the initial beta sign-up.)
Related: ExpertFlyer joins the TPG family
Bottom line
ExpertFlyer gives you the tools and information you need to use your miles to fly better. And now with the exclusive Hilton cards offer, you can take advantage of helpful flight tools and big hotel perks -- all in one. You'll have to act quick since the offer ends on Jan. 27, 2021.
Earn either 150,000 Hilton Honors points or 130,000 Hilton Honors points and a year of ExpertFlyer Premium (up to $100 statement credit) after meeting minimum spend requirements with these offers.
Apply here for the Hilton Aspire card.
Apply here for the Hilton Surpass card.
Related: Best Hilton cards of 2021
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Surpass Amex, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Aspire Amex, click here.
