Originally Posted by
ElevatorEnthusiast
The Aspire comes with a free night that works at almost any Hilton as long as a standard room award is available every year - you can offset the annual fee very easily with that alone, and the credits help, too.
Aspire is a no-brainer card IMO.
As for Hilton, biggest issue is upgrades (suites aren’t common) and late checkout (I struggle with 2 PM at a lot of properties). That being said, I generally like Hilton in Asia as they seem to have pretty good lounges and breakfasts and you are almost always guaranteed a choice of restaurant breakfast even if a lounge exists (except for Conrad Seoul).
I don’t stay at Hilton in the US (except for once) because of the food and beverage credit nonsense.
So even in Asia, you haven't gotten upgrades to suites for Hilton? That's too bad.
Like OP, I've been thinking about getting Aspire but I like suite upgrades. Hyatt has been excellent to me but the program has deteriorated the last 1-2 years with all the goh trading and gaming in China with some hotels only selling suites on ctrip and not app, thus never making suites available for upgrades