Wow - what a wide open question. I will avoid the reference to quality hotel or quality airline. There are two many opinions on that.

As to airlines - the first and most important thing is to look at where you fly and who covers your routes the best, THEN pick from the airlines that can serve you best. For example, if you fly from LA to Seattle most of the time, US Air could be the best airline in the world (NOT), but it would not matter, since they fly mostly in the east.

Good luck. You will find many, many opinions on these boards.