Some issues with the program Travel_Hero is trying to prototype:

1. You're introducing yet another alternative currency into a traveler's ecosystem when most of us already have too many to deal with.

2. You're asking travelers to abandon a loyalty currency of proven, or at least familiar, value (hotel points) for one that is neither.

3. The complexity barrier is pretty imposing. I definitely do not want to book business travel via a live concierge -- too tedious -- and the program concept in general takes several grafs of dense text to explain. Remember, if you can't write your breakthrough concept down so it fits on the back of a business card, it's not breakthrough enough.

4. If the primary "reward" is business/F upgrades on "short domestic flights" (such as JFK-LAX? Six hours?), other channels offer less complicated ways to earn them -- from straight buyup offers to miles or cert upgrades from the airlines. There doesn't seem like enough carrot here.

5. If the gap between a Y and an F tariff is $1,500, I get 25% of my hotel rate rebated to me in a fund to be used for upgrades, and my average hotel room-night costs $200, I will have to spend $6,000 and stay 30 nights to earn one upgrade, correct? Again, too little carrot. And crediting 30 nights to most hotel programs gets you well on the way to upper-tier status in an established program.