Hello to All Flyertalk gurus!!!

I am new to this forum and have been reading all stickies and articles by Randy other FF gurus, on several websites for a few weeks now, before I am posting this mesg..

Following is my background.
1) I am going to be based out of Atlanta and ATL is gonna be my base airport.
2) I will be travelling mostly every week M-Th to various parts in US. Will try my best to stick with one hotel chain. Preferably SPG but they are not many of those, so would be Mariott/Hilton as well.
3) Every year/18 months, once I will be having one trip to India
4) I intend to use the points from different programs for pleasure travel to Egypt, Hawaii, Europe, Egypt & Latin America (mainly Brazil, Argentina). Mostly will be visiting these places with my Wife.

Following are my questions
1) Which airline should I chose at my Base FF program -
Delta OR Alaska (since points on it can be transferred across *A & OW) OR any other suggestion?

In several interviews/programs, Randy and other FF gurus have said that, it is NOT necessary to chose the airline having a hub at your base to be your FF. I read this advice in one of the recent ones.

2) Accordingly, is it worth going for a Credit card associated with my FF? Will the annual fee associated with it, make up for the benefits?

3) If SPG hotel is not available, which one should be the next preference?Mariott OR Hilton or ICH? I read forums on all 3 of those and not able to figure which one to prefer?

Thanks in Advance for all your suggestions.