When I worked in network television news and automatically flew J internationally, stayed in four- and five-star hotels, had fixers and drivers and caterers everywhere, travel was indeed a sort of a perk -- even if we never saw much of the exotic locales we'd parachute into. As a young producer I was once put up for a week in a suite at the Beverly Wilshire... yeah, I can understand people wanting a bite of that.

Now, though, my life is Courtyards and Hamptons, connecting through MSP late at night, hoping -- usually futilely -- for upgrades, and getting home at two in the morning. It's not so great. And I miss my family and my own bed a great deal.

I do not flaunt the miles and points I earn, and I think people who spout off in the office about their elite cards and award redemption strategies to people who don't have the same earning opportunities in the line of duty are boors, pretty much.

The worst offenders I have known were professional meeting planners who ran enormous event planning expenses through their own Amexes or DCs (much, MUCH more than you could compile by flying and hotel-ing alone)... kept all their resultant loyalty points... turned them into free cruises or other luxo treats... and then told their deskbound office-mates all about it. Everyone hated them, and properly so.