My wife, after a career of refusing to travel for work, is now making enough trips annually to have earned gold status on her own. Prior to this, we would occasionally make reservations under my name, she would check in using my credit card signing Mrs. JSmith50, and the points would credit to my account. We did this because otherwise she would generally not get free internet, not get breakfast, etc. Rarely would someone question her checking in, especially if her name was on the room as a second guest. If they did question her, she would say "he'll stop by later today." I can think of only a couple times a property refused her the benefits or pushed her much at all. In those instances, she'd just say "his plans changed and he's unable to make it."