Earn up to 175,000 points with these elevated Hilton American Express card welcome offers

The offer mentioned below for the Hilton Honors American Express Card, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card are no longer available.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

For a limited time, American Express is raising the welcome bonus offers on three Hilton cards — the Hilton Honors American Express Card (from 80,000 to 100,000 Hilton points), the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (from 130,000 to 155,000 points) and the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (from 150,000 to 175,000 points).

Below, CNBC Select highlights what you need to know about these elevated credit card welcome bonuses.

With all three of the consumer Hilton credit cards offering an increased welcome bonus, you have options. The Hilton Aspire is the premium card and comes with top-tier Diamond elite status as well as generous benefits. For anyone not fully committed to the Hilton brand, the Hilton Honors Card is a good starting option with no annual fee (see rates and fees).

Hilton points are worth about 0.5 to 0.6 cents each on average, according to many travel rewards experts. That means these bonuses could get you anywhere from $500 to over $1,000 towards stays at Hilton-affiliated hotels. However, the value of Hilton points can sometimes stretch much higher depending on what property you redeem them at.

Hilton Honors American Express Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Card now offers 100,000 Hilton points when you spend $2,000 on purchases within the first six months of opening the card. This bonus is 20,000 points higher than the previous offer with the same spending requirements. 100,000 Hilton points are worth between $500 and $600 on average.

The Hilton Honors American Express Card does not charge an annual fee (see rates and fees), and it comes with a range of benefits such as:

• Complimentary Hilton Silver status (grants perks such as free bottled water and a spa discount)
• Earn Hilton Gold status by spending $20,000 or more on the card in a calendar year
• No foreign transaction fees
• Terms apply

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card now offers 155,000 Hilton points when you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first six months of opening the card. On average, 155,000 Hilton points are worth between $775 and $930.

The Hilton Surpass Card has a $150 annual fee (see rates and fees) and benefits such as:

• Earn up to $200 in Hilton credit (up to $50 back each quarter)
• Complimentary Hilton Gold status (grants perks such as space-available room upgrades)
• Earn Hilton Diamond status when you spend $40,000 in a calendar year
• Earn a Free Night Reward after you spend $15,000 in a calendar year
• Extended warranty coverage
• Purchase protection
• Baggage insurance
• No foreign transaction fees
• Terms apply

New Hilton Honors Aspire card members can earn 175,000 Hilton points after spending $6,000 on purchases with your card in the first six months of card membership. This card has a hefty $550 annual fee (see rates and fees), but the benefits are exceptionally valuable. Plus, you could get over $1,000 in value from the 175,000-point welcome bonus.

For starters, every card anniversary year, you'll receive an Annual Free Night Reward, which can be redeemed at nearly any participating Hilton hotel or resort outside of these exclusions. Anyone who uses the free night at an expensive hotel may find that benefit alone makes the card worth keeping.

You can also earn two Free Night Rewards each year. You'll earn one when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year and a second reward when you spend an additional $30,000 (at least $60,000 in total) on the card within the same calendar year.

Other card benefits include:

• Complimentary Hilton Diamond status (which gives perks such as a 48-hour room guarantee and a 100% bonus to all Hilton points earned during a stay at a Hilton property)
• Up to $400 in Hilton resort credit each year (up to $200 back semi-annually)
• Up to $200 of flight credit each year (up to $50 back each quarter)
• Up to $189 in CLEAR Plus credit per calendar year
• $100 on-property credit at participating Waldorf Astoria and Conrad properties when you book a minimum two-night stay at Hiltonhonorsaspirecard.com
• Trip delay insurance
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Baggage insurance
• Extended warranty coverage
• Purchase protection
• Cell phone protection
• No foreign transaction fees
• Terms apply

Hilton doesn't have an award chart for its hotels, so there's no reliable way to know what you'll pay for a specific location other than to search the Hilton site to price out the days and locations you're interested in.

The Hilton loyalty program has several features that increase the value and flexibility of your points. You can pool your points with family members for free, which makes booking a family vacation or more expensive hotels much easier. You can also take advantage of Hilton's 5th night free on award stays when you have any level of Hilton elite status (which you get for free with all Hilton cards). This benefit can be extremely useful for longer stays because every 5th night is free on stays of up to 20 nights. So you won't pay any additional points for the 5th night, 10th night, 15th night or 20th night.

Depending on how many points you have, you can book luxurious stays with Hilton points. The Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea in Hawaii is often available to book for 110,000 points a night and can easily cost over $1,000 a night. So if you can earn an intro bonus from any of these cards, there are lots of opportunities to unlock extreme value.

All of the Hilton cards are issued by American Express, and it typically limits you to earning the welcome bonus to once per lifetime per card. That means if you have or have had a specific card before, you're unlikely to be able to earn the bonus from that particular card again.

However, each card is considered a different product. So if you've previously had a Hilton Honors card, that shouldn't negatively affect your chances of qualifying for Hilton Aspire or Hilton Surpass.

American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, so every Membership Rewards point you earn is worth two Hilton points. The Platinum Card® from American Express is a good option for quickly earning Membership rewards points, new card members can earn 80,000 points after spending $8,000 on purchases on the new card in the first six months of card membership. That's the equivalent of 160,000 Hilton points. Plus, American Express Platinum cardholders receive complimentary Hilton Gold status (enrollment required).

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card earns travel rewards that can be useful for booking any hotel. Hilton isn't a Capital One transfer partner, but you can redeem Capital One miles for one cent each toward any eligible travel purchase. This card comes with $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening - that's equal to $1,000 in travel (including Hilton hotels).

If you're a frequent traveler who typically stays at Hilton Hotels at least a few times a year, you could benefit from any of the welcome bonuses offered by the Hilton Honors American Express Card, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card or Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. With these increased offers, you can book anything from a stopover at an airport hotel to a night at a luxury resort.

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For rates and fees for the Hilton Honor Surpass Card, click here.

For rates and fees for Hilton Honors Amex Card, click here.

For rates and fees for the Hilton Honors Aspire card, click here.

For rates and fees for The Platinum Card from American Express, click here.