How to use the Hilton Aspire $250 resort credit — One of the many benefits of this valuable card!

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One of the best perks of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is its $250 resort credit. You’ll get up to $250 in statement credits per anniversary year when you make eligible purchases at participating Hilton Resorts. There are over 230 locations where you can redeem this perk!

Eligible purchases include room rates and taxes, as well as any incidentals charged directly to your room and paid for with your Amex Hilton Aspire.

Let’s take a look at some great uses of the $250 resort credit. This is just one of the benefits that make this perhaps the best travel card on the market.

The information for the Hilton Aspire card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The Hilton Aspire card is unbelievably valuable

When you open the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, you can earn 150,000 Hilton points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. You can learn more about how to meet credit card minimum spend here.

It’s not difficult to get a value of at least ~0.5 cents per Hilton point, so you could get $750 in value from the welcome bonus alone! Plus, you’ll get complimentary Diamond elite status (the highest status Hilton offers) which comes with some great perks when you stay with Hilton. One of my favorites is free breakfast. I was able to get four breakfast vouchers per day for four days at a value of $19 each for a total of $304 during a recent Hilton stay. That benefit alone could offset the annual fee of $450 (See rates and fees).

For a full rundown of all of the Aspire’s benefits, read our guide here. It’s also worth comparing the Aspire to the other Hilton cards before applying.

But one of the best perks is the card’s $250 resort credit — if you can use it! I’ll explain.

Hilton Aspire $250 resort credit

With the Hilton Aspire Amex card, you’ll get up to $250 in statement credits per anniversary year when you make eligible purchases at participating Hilton Resorts.

It’s very important to recognize that an anniversary (or reward) year is not the same as a calendar year. An anniversary year is generally defined as every twelve-month period starting with your account opening date. For example, my anniversary year is August through August, whereas the calendar year is usually January 1 to December 31.

Eligible purchases include room rates and taxes, as well as any incidentals charged directly to your room and paid for with your Amex Aspire card when you stay at an eligible Hilton Resort.

Yeah, you read that right, you can receive your credit for paid room stays. Just make sure you’re staying at a Hilton resort listed on Hilton’s resort page. Just because the hotel has “Resort” in its name, doesn’t mean it qualifies; it must be on the Hilton resort page. Here are some examples of fun locations:

• Hilton Waikiki Beach
• Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort
• Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi
• Conrad Maldives
• Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah

Use your credit for “free” or discounted nights at a Hilton resort

The easiest way to use your $250 resort credit is by charging your room stay to your Hilton Aspire Amex card.

For folks who love Disney, you may consider staying at one of the seven resorts near the theme park. Resorts like the Waldorf Astoria Orlando start at around $300, and the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Orlando at SeaWorld for around $130. Most hotels offer free shuttles to the nearby parks, like Disney and SeaWorld!

I used my most recently available resort credit at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa. Nightly rates were about $300, so I had to pay out of pocket for what my $250 resort credit didn’t cover. But the resort is all-inclusive so I got food, drinks and some resort services for free!

There are over 10 all-inclusive Hilton resorts and we have an easy to follow Hilton all-inclusive resorts guide to help you out. Most, if not all, qualify as a participating Hilton resort. So the $250 resort credit should apply at each location for paid stays and incidental charges.

If your travel partner has the Hilton Aspire Amex card as well, you could split your resort stay across both cards to get up to $500 in statement credits. A couple of our team members make use of this strategy.

Use your credit for incidentals like food, beverages, and resort services

The other main way to use your $250 resort credit is by charging incidentals to your room and paying with your Hilton Aspire Amex card. Remember, you must be actively staying at the resort to receive the credit. You can’t just walk into the resort and pay with your card and receive the credit; that’s against the terms and conditions.

If you’re staying at a Hilton resort for free with points (you should not be paying!), you’ll have no reason to use your resort credit for the room rate. Food, restaurants, and spa charges at establishments within the Hilton Resort are the best places to use your $250 resort credit. You could schedule a massage at the resort and have it charged to your room. Or you could have an amazing dinner at a resort restaurant — the choice is yours.

MMS team members Meghan and Jasmin both used their Hilton Aspire resort credits to save on stays at the Grand Wailea Resort — one of the best Hilton hotels for families in Wailea.

Bottom line

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card comes with a ton of great benefits. One of the best is the $250 Hilton Aspire resort credit.

You’ll receive this as a statement credit for purchases up to $250 per anniversary year when you stay at one of Hilton’s 230+ listed resorts. Eligible spending includes room rates and taxes, plus incidentals such as food, restaurant, and spa services within resort establishments.

Have you used the $250 Hilton Aspire resort credit? Let us know how you’ve used it in the comments below! And subscribe to our newsletter for more posts like this

For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express, please click here