Three or four times a year, I have to pay hotels for the food, beverages, etc. for groups, routine charges of from $5,000. to $40,000.. Using a mileage reward card makes the bills a hefty addon to my FF milers from flights.

Then there are the rewards from hotel group affiliations, points which make everything from modest rooms on vacation trips or while consulting (self-employment, flat fees, no itemized expenses) to the occasional plunge into outright luxury. A $40,000. hotel bill comes with a bucket full of points.

I don't travel enough to be a high status flyer with any airline, and personally barely make modest elite status with a couple of hotel chains, but I've noticed that the company-owned "stores" in Marriott's upper tier of hotels do treat "high mileage" with a touch more consideration than a guy with zero ponts.

That first Transatlantic seat up in the front of the bus on a reward ticket and the first holiday weekend in a hotel at which I would have balked at even a discount rate were all it took for the choice to be made for me.

TMO