Hilton Honors Amex or Amex Cobalt: Which One Should You Choose for Hilton Points?

Prior to the introduction of this card, the best way to earn Hilton Honors points (other than staying at Hilton properties) was by transferring Membership Rewards (MR) points earned with a card like the American Express Cobalt Card.

Now, with the Hilton Honors American Express card in play, some of you may be wondering whether you should continue to spend on your American Express Cobalt Card and transfer to Hilton Honors, or whether the new Hilton card is now the best way to earn.

In this article, we'll dig into these questions to determine which card is best for earning Hilton Honors points and when it makes sense to use both cards strategically to maximize the value and flexibility of your rewards portfolio.

Hilton Honors American Express vs Cobalt

To get us started, let's quickly go over the two credit cards that we're exploring: the Hilton Honors American Express Card and the American Express Cobalt Card.

Hilton Honors American Express Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Card is the first co-branded Hilton credit card in Canada and was introduced to the public in late 2026. This card has an annual fee of $150 and earns Hilton Honors points on all purchases at the following rates:

• 6 points per $1 spent at eligible hotels and resorts within the Hilton portfolio
• 4 points per $1 spent on eligible dining, groceries, and gas in Canada
• 2 points per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases

The card also comes with an attractive portfolio of perks and benefits, such as:

• A strong welcome offer of up to 70,000 Hilton Honors points and a Free Night Reward
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status and the ability to upgrade to Diamond status after you spend at least $40,000 on the card in the year
• 50,000 Bonus Points after you spend over $12,000 on the card in the year
• Amex's roster of features like Front of the Line ticket presales and access to The Hotel Collection, Amex Offers, and Amex Experiences
• …and more

American Express Cobalt Card

The American Express Cobalt Card remains one of the most popular cards on the market, in large part due to its standout earning rate in the food & drink category. The Cobalt card earns valuable and flexible Membership Rewards (MR) points on all purchases at the following rates:

• 5 MR points per $1 spent on food and drink, including restaurants, cafés, take-out/delivery, and groceries in Canada (The 5x rate is earned on up to $2,500 net spending per month. After this spending threshold is met, the earning rate goes down to 1x until the total resets on the first of the month.)
• 3 MR points per $1 spent on eligible streaming services in Canada
• 2 MR points per $1 spent on gas, transit, and rideshare in Canada
• 1 MR point per $1 spent on everything else
• Bonus 1 MR point per $1 spent on Amex Travel hotel and car rental bookings (Hotel bookings under The Hotel Collection are not eligible for this bonus point)

The American Express Cobalt Card comes with a monthly fee of $15.99 for non-Quebec residents, or an annual fee of $191.88 for residents of Quebec. Like the Hilton Honors Amex, it also comes with some perks, such as:

• Welcome offer of up to 15,000 MR points during your first year as a cardholder
• Solid travel insurance coverage, including emergency medical insurance, flight delay insurance, baggage delay insurance, and more
• Up to $60 in Instacart statement credits
• Amex's roster of features like Front of the Line ticket presales and access to The Hotel Collection, Amex Offers, and Amex Experiences
• …and more

Earning Rates Compared

Now, since this article is about figuring out the best strategy for earning Hilton Honors points using the Hilton Honors American Express Card and the American Express Cobalt Card, it's important that we compare the earning rates from both cards.

Conveniently, Membership Rewards (MR) points transfer to Hilton Honors at a rate of 1:1, so in the table below, you can actually imagine each point earned as equivalent to 1 Hilton Honors point regardless of which card is being used.

Using Both Cards to Maximize Hilton Points

As we mentioned above, your accumulated MR points can be transferred to your Hilton Honors account at a rate of 1:1.

This means that if your only goal is to accumulate Hilton Honors points as quickly as possible, you should choose whichever of the two card offers the highest earn rate in each spending category.

To clarify, the table below is the same as the one from the section above, except this time we've highlighted the best card to use if you're focused on accumulating Hilton Honors points quickly, and you're willing to leave potential redemption value on the table to do it (more on this side of things in the next section).

Said another way, this means that to earn Hilton Honors points as fast as possible, you should divide your spending across both cards.

Specifically, you should use your Hilton Honors American Express Card for these spending categories:

• Hilton hotels and resorts
• Other hotels
• Gas
• Transit and rideshares
• Bookings made through Amex Travel
• Everything else

Then, use your American Express Cobalt Card for these remaining spending categories:

• Dining, groceries, and food delivery
• Streaming services

From the spending on your American Express Cobalt Card, you can transfer your earned MR points to your Hilton Honors account knowing that you've maximized each spending category's earning rate.

However, the strategy used in this example assumes that you're spending a maximum of $2,500 per month in the food and drink category and can thus take full advantage of the 5x earning rate on the American Express Cobalt Card, but what about someone who spends more than $2,500/month in this category?

Over $2,500 Monthly on Food & Drink

For a solo spender or even two people spending together, the $2,500 threshold is likely reasonable to cover groceries, restaurants, and coffees for the month; however, a family of 4 could potentially go well past this threshold depending on how often they go to restaurants or order delivery and what their grocery habits are like.

If your monthly budget puts you over $2,500 in food and drink, adjust your strategy to earn more Hilton Honors points.

Specifically, after you reach that $2,500 food and drink threshold in a month, you'll benefit from switching your spending in this category to the Hilton Honors American Express card to earn 4 points per $1 instead of the American Express Cobalt Card's lowered earning rate of 1 point per $1 spent. Then when the 5x rate is reset on the first of the month, you can switch back to the American Express Cobalt.

As an example, if you were to spend $4,000 a month in the food and drink category, switching to the Hilton Honors American Express Card after hitting the $2,500 category threshold on the American Express Cobalt Card breaks down as:

• Without switching cards – $2,500 @ 5 points per $1 (with Amex Cobalt) + $1,500 @ 1 point per $1 (with Amex Cobalt) = 14,000 points earned (all on the Amex Cobalt)

OR

• With switching cards – $2,500 @ 5 points per $1 (with Amex Cobalt) + $1,500 @ 4 points per $1 (with Hilton Amex) = 18,500 points (or 12,500 with Amex Cobalt and 6,000 with Hilton Amex)

This is a difference of 4,500 points in total! Considering that it's technically possible to find a Hilton Hotel redemption for only 5,000 points, switching cards is certainly worthwhile for travellers focused on collecting as many Hilton Honors points as possible.

What Your Points Are Worth

Now that we know what each card earns and how to earn the most Hilton Honors quickly, let's dig into another part of the points earning equation: how much are these earned points actually worth and is focusing exclusively on Hilton Honors points the best strategy?

Since we value Hilton Honors points at 0.5¢ each and Membership Rewards points at 1.7¢ each this means that our table from the beginning of the article can be expanded as follows:

What we see in the above calculations is that the American Express Cobalt Card provides the best value in all categories except on spending at Hilton hotels and resorts. Take note though that our valuation of each of these program's points should really be seen as a potential value since the actual value you can get from your MR points and Hilton Honors points varies based on how you choose to redeem them.

Hilton Honors points are valued at 0.5¢ each because we feel it is relatively easy to find redemptions at this rate. That said, you can also find redemption values at up to 0.89¢ per point (plus the occasional outlier that gives a value higher than this).

Similarly, the valuation of MR points at 1.7¢ each is based on potential value that can be achieved by transferring to high-value airline and hotel loyalty programs like Aeroplan, British Airways Club, Flying Blue, Marriott Bonvoy, and more.

If you don't transfer your MR points and instead redeem them from your Membership Rewards account, you can expect to get a value of at least 1¢ per point when redeeming for a statement credit or a little less when redeeming for merchandise, gift cards, or experiences.

Until January 6, 2027, you can also redeem your MR points at a rate of 1¢ each for fixed-rate travel via Amex Travel; however, after this date, this option will only be available for Membership Rewards members with the Amex Platinum, Business Platinum, or Centurion card.

All this to say, MR points can easily be redeemed for at least 1¢, so transferring them to Hilton Honors doesn't make sense from a speculative or value perspective; in theory, you're exchanging 1.7¢ worth of value (1 MR point) for 0.5¢ worth of value (1 Hilton Honors point), which is not ideal.

That said, value aside, if you've got a specific Hilton redemption in mind and you're short some points, it can certainly be worthwhile to transfer from your MR points account if you're not able to earn the Hilton Honors points any other way.

Just keep in mind that Hilton also lets you redeem with a combination of points and cash, so it's worth comparing the values to see if you're better off just paying cash before transferring MR points.

Using Both Cards to Maximize Value

Now, if you're not hyper-focused on earning Hilton Honors points and are instead looking to extract maximum value and maintain flexibility with your rewards earnings, your best strategy is to use your American Express Cobalt Card for all purchases except spending at Hilton properties.

As we show in the table below, by using your American Express Cobalt Card for all purchases, you'll earn fewer points than you would by using your Hilton Honors American Express Card, but these points are considerably more valuable in all categories except Hilton hotel spending.

Based on our theoretical spend of $500 on Hilton hotels and resorts, you could earn 3,000 points (worth $15.00) with your Hilton Honors credit card or 500 points (worth $8.50) with your American Express Cobalt Card. Therefore in this one category, you get the most value from the Hilton co-branded card instead of the Amex Cobalt card.

Now, ultimately which card(s) you choose to use for which category depends on your current rewards goals. If you've got a specific Hilton redemption that you're working towards (like maybe a night or two at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi), you'll want to follow the Hilton Honors-focused strategy we went over earlier in the article.

However, if you don't currently have any specific rewards goals, your best strategy is to earn for maximum value using the strategy from this section. This will set you up with a nice pile of flexible MR points that you can transfer to Hilton Honors, Aeroplan, Flying Blue, and Marriott Bonvoy.

Bottom Line

Part of the fun of collecting reward points is that you can tailor your strategy to suit your spending and your goals.

If your only rewards focus is to earn Hilton Honors points to access luxury properties or enjoy some free nights around the world, then you should use the spending strategy that we define in the "Using Both Cards to Maximize Hilton Points" section.

However, if you're interested in a more diversified rewards wallet, and you want to maintain flexibility in terms of using your points across different rewards programs (e.g., Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Marriott Bonvoy), then you're better off following the strategy we outline in the "Using Both Cards to Maximize Value" section.

Regardless of what strategy you choose, both the Hilton Honors American Express Card and the American Express Cobalt cards will serve you well as part of a travel-focused rewards wallet.

Still comparing options? See our best credit cards in Canada to find the card that fits your spending.

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