As far as hotels go I would recommend SPG, as long as you have the SPG Amex CC. An infrequent flyer should be accumulating SPG points via regular CC spend (especially with the US Mint coin deal), then the points will be there for you when you do decide to travel and need a decent hotel room and/or need to xfer some SPG points to your 1:1 SPG/Airline mile program to get that flight you need.