At the risk of taking my own thread off-topic, I have to comment on 'free nights'. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Getting one night 'free' after paying for 10 or whatever, whether from a hotel chain or from a third party booking parasite, is not free. Businesses of whatever kind, do not offer Loyalty Rewards for the benefit of customers, they are for the benefit of the business. Just as a casino isn't there for the customer to win money, they're there for the house to make money. The only difference is that with Loyalty Programs, you pay in advance fora future stay at a hotel or flight on a plane or a bag of groceries.

If I sell you a bag of potatoes for $5.50 and then 10 bags down the line I give you a 'free' bag for your 'loyalty points', all that happened is you bought 11 bags at $5.00 each. None of them were free.

That is not to say no one should use Loyalty Programs. A frequent flyer with an airline or shopper at a supermarket would be foolish to not join the program since the price is going to be $5.50 whether you are in the program or not. But the program does not 'reward' the participant, it simply punishes those who are not participants. There is a difference.

I don't try to fool myself that I get anything free from Loyalty Programs however.