Hilton Honors American Express^® Card Launches in Canada with Up to 70,000 Points and a Free Night Reward

Canadians can now earn Hilton Honors points with a Hilton credit card of their own. The Hilton Honors American Express® Card launched today with complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status, up to 6 points per dollar spent, and an annual fee of $150.

New cardholders can earn up to 70,000 Hilton Honors points plus a Free Night Reward.

For years, Canadians have looked south with some envy at the lineup of Hilton co-branded cards Amex offers in the US, which you can only get with US credit history. That envy grew in May, when Hilton launched its first co-branded cards in Mexico, the Hilton Honors INVEX cards with INVEX Banco and Mastercard.

Now a Hilton card has arrived up north as well. Let me walk through what it offers and whether it deserves a spot in your wallet.

Up to 70,000 Points and a Free Night Reward

The welcome offer comes in two parts. You'll earn 60,000 Hilton Honors points and a Free Night Reward after spending $3,000 in the first three months, then another 10,000 points after spending $500 in your 13th month as a cardholder.

Applications are open until January 11, 2027, and current or former holders of this card aren't eligible.

We value Hilton Honors points at 0.7 cents each, which puts the 60,000 points at about $420. The 6,000 points you'd earn on the required $3,000 in spending add another $42, so after the $150 annual fee the first year works out to roughly $312 before the Free Night Reward.

The Free Night Reward adds to that value. It's good for one night in a standard room for two at Hilton properties, with no points cap in Amex's terms, so it goes furthest at a hotel where reward nights cost a lot of points.

Hilton excludes a handful of properties, you book the night by phone, and it expires 12 months after it's issued. Our guide covers how Hilton Free Night Rewards work.

Gold Status and a Path to Diamond

The card's main ongoing perk is complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status. Gold members earn an 80% bonus on base points from stays, get space-available upgrades up to executive floor rooms, and get the fifth night free on standard room reward stays.

Gold also comes with a daily food and beverage credit or continental breakfast, depending on the brand and region. On a longer trip, that benefit adds up quickly.

By spending $12,000 on the card in a calendar year, you'll earn 50,000 bonus points, worth about $350. Add the 24,000 points the spending itself earns at 2x, and that's 74,000 points, or roughly $518, on $12,000 in purchases.

Spend $40,000 in a calendar year and you'll be upgraded to Diamond status for the rest of that year and the following year. Purchases on additional cards count toward both thresholds.

If you already hold the Amex Platinum, you can enrol in Hilton Gold through that card already. For you, the draws here are the welcome bonus and the spending path to Diamond.

Still, it's a good thing that a path to Diamond status through spending alone exists in Canada at all. Whether it's worth putting $40,000 on the card depends on how often you stay at Hilton, and on what you'd give up by not putting that spending on a card that earns more.

Earning Rates on Everyday Spending

The card earns Hilton Honors points at three rates.

• 6 points per dollar spent: purchases made directly with Hilton hotels and resorts, including dining and spa charges billed to your room
• 4 points per dollar spent: restaurants, coffee shops, bars, grocery stores, gas stations, and food delivery in Canada
• 2 points per dollar spent: all other purchases

At our valuation, that's a return of about 4.2% on Hilton stays, 2.8% on dining, gas, and groceries, and 1.4% on everything else. The 4x categories only count in Canada, so a restaurant meal abroad earns the base rate.

Those are fine numbers for a hotel card, but they won't replace a strong everyday earner. The Amex Cobalt earns 5 MR points per dollar spent on groceries and dining, and those points are worth far more than Hilton points by our valuations.

How It Stacks Up Against the US Hilton Surpass Card

The closest US equivalent is the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, which also costs $150 a year, in US dollars. Lining the two up shows how much Amex left out of the Canadian version. The US welcome offer below is a limited-time one that ends January 13, 2027.

	Canadian card	US Surpass
Annual fee	$150	$150 (USD)
Welcome offer	60,000 points + a Free Night Reward, plus 10,000 in month 13	130,000 points + a Free Night Reward (limited time)
Hilton purchases	6x	12x
Dining, groceries, gas	4x (in Canada)	6x (in the US)
Everything else	2x	3x
Spending reward	50,000 points at $12,000	Free Night Reward at $15,000
Hilton credit	None	$200 (USD) a year
Status	Complimentary Gold, Diamond at $40,000	Complimentary Gold, Diamond at $40,000
FX fee	2.5%	None

This isn't a case for chasing the US card, which requires US credit history. It's a useful benchmark for what Hilton and Amex think a $150 Hilton card should include.

To be fair, the everyday earning gap is smaller than the multipliers suggest. The US card earns per US dollar, so at our valuation of 0.5 cents (USD) per point its 3x base rate returns about 1.5%, against 1.4% on the Canadian card.

The real gaps are elsewhere. The US card comes with up to $200 (USD) a year in Hilton credits, worth about $281 CAD if you use all four quarterly credits. That more than covers the fee on its own. It also earns 12x at Hilton, adds a Free Night Reward after $15,000 in spending each year, and charges no foreign transaction fees.

What the Canadian Card Should Have Included

Personally, I think the Canadian card should have come with a Free Night Reward every year, even one tied to a spending requirement like the US card's $15,000 threshold.

The Marriott Bonvoy Amex already sets that bar in Canada. It costs $120 a year and comes with a Free Night Award worth up to 35,000 points on every card anniversary, which on its own can cover the fee.

Instead, the yearly reward for spending is a fixed 50,000 points at $12,000. That's useful, but at about $350 it's capped, while a Free Night Reward can cover a night that would cost far more points.

Dropping the 2.5% foreign transaction fee would have been another easy fix. A Hilton stay in Europe that comes to $300 on your statement earns 1,800 points worth about $12.60, while the fee adds $7.50 to the bill.

On regular purchases abroad, the fee wipes out the rewards entirely. A $100 dinner in Paris earns 200 points, worth $1.40, and costs $2.50 in fees.

At the very least, I'd have liked to see some kind of Hilton credit. It doesn't need to match the US card's $200 (USD) a year. Even $50 a year toward a Hilton stay would have taken a third off the annual fee and given cardholders a reason to keep the card.

Conclusion

I'd take the first year for what it is. Gold status, 60,000 points, and a Free Night Reward for $150 is a good trade, especially if you don't already have Gold through the Amex Platinum.

The second year is a tougher call. Without an annual free night, the card has to earn its fee through Hilton stays and the 50,000-point bonus at $12,000. When the renewal comes around, the deciding factor is how many Hilton nights you actually booked that year.

Amex has finally brought a Hilton card to Canada. Now it needs to give Canadians a reason to keep it past the welcome bonus.