One of the things I find interesting is the perceived poor value of Airpoints for by Australian customers on here and of a couple of people I know who live in Australia and fly a lot both TT and who chose to fly long-haul via NZ. ORD, IAH and EZE are very significant markets for through traffic from Australia, and ORD in particular has very high figures (well over 30% on many flights).
While I share some of the views expressed above I also disagree with some, and I think some of us need to at times take a bit of time out and realise points and status obsessed flyers make up a very small percentage of total passenger numbers. I ran into a friend the other week who is now flying between NZ/AU and the UK around 10 times a year as a FIFO worker and as strange as it may seem to us, they don't really care about points or status despite the fact they'd clearly do well committing to a program.
As somebody who's spent anywhere from 50-80 nights a year in hotels in recent years both for leisure and work there are things that annoy me greatly (and would stop me staying at a property in the future) that somebody who stays in a hotel a few nights a year wouldn't even care about. As with FFers, balancing the needs and wants of both types of customers vs the commercial realty of running a business can be difficult.