Hilton Aspire Card $400 Resort Credit: How It Works – One Mile at a Time

Link: Apply now for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (Review) is one of the best value hotel credit cards around, thanks to the incredible benefits the card offers.

The card has a hefty annual fee of $550, but with benefits like Hilton Honors Diamond status, a free annual night reward, $400 in hotel credits per year, and $200 in flight credits per year, I think the amount is easily justified.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how this card’s $400 annual resort credit works. It’s one of those perks that can easily recoup most of the card’s annual fee, but there’s often confusion about how it works.

Hilton Aspire Card $400 Resort Credit Details

The Hilton Aspire Card offers up to $400 in hotel statement credits per year to be redeemed at Hilton resorts. The credits are issued semi-annually, so you can earn $200 from January through June and $200 from July through December.

As you can imagine, there are some terms to be aware of:

• This credit is only valid at Hilton Family resorts and cannot be used at non-resort hotels. See the full list of Hilton Resorts here
• This credit can be applied towards the room rate or incidentals at the hotel. To redeem this offer, you must pay with your Hilton Aspire Card and the purchase must be towards the room rate.
• Officially, this credit is intended for settling folios at accommodations and cannot be applied to prepaid or non-refundable rates.
• This credit can be used in more than one transaction, so if you don’t hit your $200 semi-annual limit in a single transaction, you can use it across multiple transactions.
• Eligible purchases can be made by either the primary cardholder or an authorized user, but only a maximum of $400 in credits can be earned in the aggregate each year.
• After a qualifying purchase, it may take 8-12 weeks for the statement credit to appear, although in most cases it may appear sooner.
• No registration is required to take advantage of this offer, just use your card to make an eligible purchase.

Tips for getting the most out of your Hilton Aspire Card’s $400 resort credit

I wanted to share some general thoughts on how to make the most of the $400 resort credit on the Hilton Aspire Card: None of these are earth-shattering, but they’re worth keeping in mind.

First, almost everyone in my family has the Hilton Aspire card because the card pays for itself, so keep that in mind when you stay at a hotel and use multiple cards to pay for your stay.

For example, if Ford and I are staying at a Hilton resort, we both bring our Hilton Aspire cards and at checkout I charge $200 to his card and the remaining amount to my Hilton Aspire card. Some people forget that it’s easy to split the hotel bill, but this is important to remember if you and your spouse have cards.

Secondly, if you don’t stay at a Hilton resort at least once every six months, some Hilton resorts allow you to fill out a credit card authorization form in advance to have a certain amount of credit approved for your room. For example, say you confirm a reservation at a resort in April and plan to stay in August, some resorts will charge you $200 up front to credit your account, allowing you to make the most of your first half of the year credit.

Not all properties do this, but some do and it should usually trigger a credit (as the property processes the purchase directly).

Finally, non-refundable or prepaid rates technically don’t qualify for the credit, but there have been many reports of such bookings being credited. It all seems to depend on how the rates are handled, but resorts outside the US seem to do this more often, so while you can’t rely on it, don’t be surprised if it does happen.

How to use the Hilton Aspire Card’s $400 resort credit

How much and how should I make the most of the $400 annual resort credit on my Hilton Aspire Card? Of course, ideally I would use up the entire $400 credit each year, but in reality, I don’t go to Hilton resorts that often, as I tend to stay at World of Hyatt and Marriott Bonvoy resorts more often than I do Hilton Honors resorts.

That being said, I stay at a Hilton resort at least once a year, so I’m getting at least $200 in value from this credit. Of course, there are other ways to make the most of this, but staying at a Hilton resort just to use the $200 credit probably isn’t worth it.

By my calculations, I would be happy to use my Hilton resort credit even once a year. This card does have a $550 annual fee, but in my opinion;

• I use my Hilton resort credit at least once a year and get about $200 in value.
• I have no problem using the $200 airline credit and consider it more or less worth its face value.
• The two perks above give me at least $400 in value, plus an additional $150 in annual free night certificates and Hilton Honors Diamond status (I regularly use my free night certificates at $1,000+ hotels, so they’re actually worth a lot more than that).

Conclusion

The Hilton Aspire Card has a lot of great perks, including a $400 annual resort credit. This is a semi-annual credit, so you get $200 in the first half of the year and $200 in the second half. If you stay at Hilton resorts often, this is easy to use.

While it would be ideal to use all of your credits every year, many people only stay at Hilton resorts once a year, so they often only end up using the credit once. There are some tricks to get creative with your credits, but it’s up to you to decide if they’re worth it.

What was your experience using the $400 resort credit from the Hilton Aspire Card?