Perhaps OT, but my take regarding being a slave to miles: Over the years, I've learned that nothing beats a nonstop flight. Not a cheap airfare and certainly not bonus miles. Just this past weekend: Memorial Day trip to visit family in Florida, we took the nonstop WN flight to MCO. It was exactly what you'd expect for a cattle car to Orlando on a holiday weekend: a totally packed flight and dozens of cranky kids. But the other option was an AA flight through DFW. Even though I collect AA miles and hold a lifetime elite status, the time cost and additional time-risk of turning out 2h45m gate-to-gate trip into 5+ hours was simply unacceptable. So we took the cattle car. It sucked, but not as bad as getting stuck in Dallas would suck.

So with airlines, chasing the miles can get pretty costly and illogical if you let it. But with hotels, I've found that usually I don't have to give up much or anything to stay within the big three programs. Even on leisure, where the room cost is a factor, at least Marriott and Hilton have all sorts of brand/quality choices. Sure, there is occasionally a trip where we'll compare a 3rd-party-booked room vs. any points-earning option, but lately we've been doing a lot of 2-room bookings, so a Residence Inn or MVCI unit comes in lower-cost (and roomier!) than a couple of standard Priceline rooms.

You don't really have to give up much to participate in the hotel programs - as long as you check yourself when it seems that you might be working a bit too hard to make one chain work for your travel needs.