Originally Posted by sdsearch

Well, if you sometimes fly United, you can usually get the $250 incidental credit on the Aspire with United Travel Bank:

Airline fee $250/$200 reimbursement reports: UA only (2023)

You also get an annual free night credit with the Aspire card.

Finally, you get a $250 resort credit, but it only be used for stays at hotels on the Hilton resort list:

https://www.hilton.com/en/locations/resorts/

If you can use at least one of those credits, that effective lowest your annual fee to $200. Then it depends on the value of the Hilton night for which you use the free night award as to whether you've recovered the annual fee with just one credit and the free night award.

Obviously, if you can use both credits to their maximum, you've recovered more than the annual fee, even before using the free night award.

And while the incidental credit is tied to the calendar (resets Jan 1), the resort credit is tied to you application date (that's when it resets every year).