There are other issues too. I often attend events at particular hotels. Whether it be a professional conference or a science fiction convention, I much prefer to be at the main con hotel. This means I'll stay at many different hotel chains. ... However I can fly *A to any of them. This makes airline schemes much easier.

Airline programmes are also more useful because of the way hotels give out elite status in many ways. I've been gold level with Hilton and Starwood for around 5-8 years each, but never ever had even 20% of the required stays to earn it.

In the past, I used to simply put all my hotel stays in any chain towards Qantas. At 1000-1500 points per stay (and most of my stays were short) this was worth more than the hotel points anyhow! With the massive devaluation of the Qantas FF programme in the last 2 years, accompanied by reductions in the hotel points credited through it, I've changed to earning points with Starwood and Hilton, but it's only been worth it this last couple of years.