Thanks for all the reply and posts.

Lesson learned - no such thing as Loyalty. I would book now and in the future based on 'bang-for-the-buck' instead of logging and saving for those points.

Happy trip to everyone wherever you may go!

exactly, loyalty programs are a way for marketing pukes to drive people away.

I have a no fee Hilton credit card. I have to use it only once every 9 months to protect my points.

I used a United Visa credit card for everything I could until I had enough miles saved up for a free ticket to Asia (along with miles from previous trips). Then, I switched to an AMEX Hilton card and have been building up points.

I am not a business traveler, but for our upcoming trip, I still have enough miles and points to "pay" for a free r/t flight from Los Angeles to Bangkok, 2 nights at the Millenium Hilton Bangkok, 4 nights at the DoubleTree Bangkok Sukhumvit, 2 nights at DoubleTree Kuala Lumpur, and 2 nights at Conrad Centennial Singapore. I have enough Hilton points to cover every night of our trip, but we're going to some places that don't have a Hilton, so we're having to pay for 3 nights on our own. Not a problem since rooms in these locations are VERY inexpensive. And, we paid for one night on a train. Overall, our airfare and hotel costs for a 16 day trip is $198. Just using a credit card for things I'm buying anyway, then paying my bill off in full was an extremely easy way to build miles and points. I, personally, appreciate the loyalty programs.