The thing I love about Hilton is that their free night certificates are good for any category hotel as long as they have standard room availability. So we used those hotel certificates last year to stay at a hotel that was $3,000 or $4,000 a night. And right now, open a card.
The sign-up bonus includes a certificate. Some of the cards, you get another one when you spend $15,000. Some of them, it's $30,000. It really depends. There's a different flavor of card for everyone. But the Aspire card also comes with diamond status on Hilton, which is their top tier. That's how we ended up with four hotel status tiers.
I guess I don't have any IHG status, but haven't stayed in an IHG hotel for a really long time.