A few more random thoughts...I'll spare everyone a long multi-quote:

- Regarding HH and the devaluations of '09 and '13, totally agreed that they were painful, but there are some sweet spots within the program that didn't get impacted too much. Since HH has, in that same period, enhanced the credit card earnings, I think the program is still worth a look for a lot of people. No, it's not what it was 10 years ago (especially on the upgrade front), but if you do your business stays in an area where they are strong, there is still some good value there.

Reason HH could be relevant to the OP: the brands likely to be found in the $120 range - Hampton and HGI - are superior in most places to their Marriott counterparts. If I was on a $120/nt. target, HGI would probably be the first brand I'd look to. Also might look for Hyatt Place or Element (SPG), but there are far more HGI's in this world than those two.

The sweet spots that I've seen within HH are Asia, Middle East, and secondary European markets. Good properties that weren't hit hard by devaluation.

- The conversion to air miles came in later in the thread, but if I combine the OP's original desire to have good upper-tier redemptions *and* ability to convert to UA, this is a strong point for Marriott provided two conditions are met: (1) you do enough volume to reach the Travel Package levels where the points-to-miles rate effectively becomes 1:1 and (2) you can either avoid "resorts" or are okay staying in a resort without elite benefits.

- Starwood is a good conversion program if you want to do smaller conversions. I've never been a big fan of converting *all* SPG to airlines...I find the points worth a lot more as hotels stays. There are a variety of avenues to convert in to redeem United flights...you just need to do if via a different Star Alliance airline. (Several threads on the SPG board about this...a popular path in for some awards is SPG->ANA.)