Originally Posted by
Thunderroad
^ I'll respectfully second that respectful disagreement. The status and points have come in very handy on all sorts of business and pleasure trips, not least most of my wife's and my overseas vacations for over a decade. We never could have gone to many of the places we've visited without the hotel (and airline) points we accumulated through paid stays and credit card bonuses.
Agree, 88luftballons is not doing it right.
I've logged 58 nights stayed, plus 23 nights promotion, with Marriott this year and re-qualified for Platinum. Also, with all the megabonus promotions, I have earned enough points to pay for 3 nights in the Providence Marriott Courtyard, 1 night in the Hong Kong JW Marriott, and 2 nights in the Phuket Renaissance Marriott. Also, as a platinum, I will occasionally get upgrades, and overseas you get free internet, access to the club lounge, free welcome gift/points, and free breakfast. DEFINITELY worth it when you're traveling on your own dollar.
Also, I've logged 56 nights in Holiday Inns this year and with all the crazy bonuses, I've managed to accrue 250,000 points this year. That's enough for nearly a month stay at their lowest level hotel. So far I've booked mostly 15-20k a night hotels, but even then I'll get nearly 2 weeks worth of stays for free! Benefits at HI are not as good, but earning points is easy and redemption is good as well.
Car rental benefits may be good in the US, but I found often that car rental chains with partners or locations outside the US don't allow points accrual, so that doesn't do me any good!