Newbie alert. My name is MrTraveler. I've looked around your site for a few hours, but am frankly a bit overwhelmed and fear some of the information I seek is outdated. I worked for 10 years for a firm that handled all bookings, payments, and collected all mileage points/status. I've been going solo for 10 years or so, and am getting jealous of people getting on planes before me, sitting in seats more comfortable than me (I'm 6' 2" tall, 36" waste, 220 points), and getting guaranteed flights and hotel rooms. Over my lifetime as a consultant, I have flown probably 750,000 miles, of which 250,000 or so were in past 10 years. I have done a lot of miles this year - see below.

1. What is most important? Free flights, upgrades, and more.

2. How many miles? At or below 25,000

3. What fare class? Direct from airline web site - economy (may change to business)

4. Can I choose airlines? Yes. Can I choose class? Must be under dollar thresholds by clients, usually economy. I travel 95% work, 5% pleasure/family. I look for flights that are nonstop from Boise whenever possible. I do not like running between flights in airports.

5. US Domestic is all I travel.

6. Home: I live near Boise, Idaho (BOI).

7. Status? Not sure I have any. I just found all my accounts for all carriers, and consolidated them. I didn't know so many airlines had merged; lost a lot of miles:

ALASKA AIRLINES MILEAGE PLAN - 43,142 miles - Silver?
AMERICAN AADVANTAGE - 25,632 - expired/lifetime.
DELTA SKYMILES - 28,722 lifetime; 4,000 this year?
SOUTHWEST RAPID REWARDS - 18,393 active?
UNITED MILEAGE PLUS - 33,997 regular?
US AIRWAYS DIVIDEND MILES - 6,295 regular

8. Preferred airlines? Alaska, Delta, Southwest, and United all go where I need to go the most, but United and Delta are very expensive, and Southwest has a lot of segments/legs to get to where I need to go. Alaska and United are easiest to get to in the Boise Airport, but it is small airport anyway. I usually travel to Seattle (short flight) & Los Angeles.

I stay at Hilton (50,596 points, silver?) and Hyatt (42,218 points, gold?) the most. I am member of Choice, IHG, Starwood, Marriot, and Stash, but find myself at Hilton more often than not.

I am debt free, and don't have or want a credit card. While I know that I can qualify for a credit card, and that I get reimbursed quickly from clients, I am debt-adverse. I use a wells fargo visa debit card for booking travel. I get reimbursed for travel (flight, hotel, car) within 5 days of the end of my travel, so that I don't play 'banker' for my clients too long.

What mileage plan / hotel plan do you recommend, and why? Looking for a blueprint for success.

I will return the favor and pay it forward.