Ah, for the 1980's.

I agree about the Marriott reward with the cruise and the 4 coach tickets almost anyplace, including Australia.

As for Holiday Inn, yeah 75 points (one point for 1 or 2 nights, 2 points for 3 or more nights). We spent a lot of time moving between hotels. I got 150 points. Each 75 was worth 2 coach RTs almost anyplace (Pan Am), 2 weeks at a Holiday Inn, and free car rental for 2 weeks. (I got a Mercedes).

Even Avis had a deal. Maybe 7 rentals, and you got a free ticket to London, a 2 for 1 cruise, and other stuff. This was about the time of the Holiday Inn deal, so we also spent a lot of time returning cars and picking up another one.

Also great was the new Braniff offering to match your miles on any other carrier if you flew New Braniff 6 times. Spent a weekend going between Texas cities for a few $100, Braniff matched my Delta balance, and I received 2 business class to Hong Kong (via London and Dubai on British Caledonian), 2 F to London, and 2 coach to HNL (Transamerican Air IIRC). Also double dipped miles in United.

The original special deals were also great. United had something like take maybe 10 flights in a couple of months, and get a free domestic ticket without any mileage deduction. The great thing was that it included Hawaii AND in any available class, so we went F. And that was when F really was first class.