American Express has updated the terms on their Business Platinum card to exclude gift card purchases from working to trigger the $50 quarterly Hilton credit.
Eligible purchases, including bookings and incidental charges, must be charged directly with a property within the Hilton portfolio to the enrolled Card Account for the benefit to apply. Effective January 31, 2026, Hilton gift card purchases will no longer be considered an eligible purchase, and you will not receive the statement credit for any Hilton gift card purchases. Purchases by both the enrolled Basic Card Member and Employee Card Members on the enrolled Card Account are eligible for statement credit. However, each Card Account is only eligible for up to $50 in statement credits per quarter for a total of up to $200 per calendar year in statement credits across all Cards on the enrolled Card Account. Each quarterly eligibility period is defined as January to March, April to June, July to September, October to December.
In practice, Hilton has already removed gift cards from the online website so this isn’t really a new hit. Buying a Hilton gift card at a Hilton property will likely still work, despite the terms technically excluding it.
The new terms are not yet showing for the Hilton Surpass card or the Hilton Business card. This might create a window when Hilton will bring their gift card site back online and it will be possible to use the $50/$60 quarterly credits for those cards via online gift card purchase.
Hat tip to DDG
