I made the switch to Priceline about a year ago. It was a no brainer. I'm thankful for the years of big-company travel that helped me build Marriott and Hilton point totals for six free weeks in Hawaii and Europe, but now that I've cycled through the points, it's no longer worth it to build them back up with my own money.

I still hang on to low-elite cards through various means (promos, credit cards, etc.) but hotel status isn't terribly important to me. Yeah, I like the free breakfasts and executive lounges, but they aren't worth paying 3x the Priceline rate for.

Disclaimer: Most of the hotels I stay in either give breakfast/happy hour to everyone (Hampton, Res.Inn., Embassy, etc.) or no one (most hotels that have designated themselves as "resorts"). If I did a lot of big-city weekday stays in 4* business hotels, I might think differently about the value of status. Then again, I would probably still say "Is breakfast and happy hour worth $100/day? No."