Hmmm....this week, I had three sets of 4 award seats on hold for flights from MCI to Puerto Vallarta. For one of the itin's, I had the PVR Marriott booked as a paid stay, for the 2nd itin, I had the Westin booked as an award stay, and for the 3rd itin, I had the Westin booked as a paid stay.

When we figured out which dates worked best for us, we canceled all of the other stuff.

Right now, I have a bunch of overlapping hotel rooms booked for 2 upcoming trips to Seattle. Trying to figure out what to do...lots of hotel promotions out there right now.

To make sure I don't forget anything, whenever I'm overlapping things I make sure to leave the confirmation emails in my inbox. I don't move them out of sight (to a travel folder) until any conflicts have been resolved. That way, every morning I'm reminded that I still have to select some reservations and cancel others.

There is nothing ethically wrong with it: it's the rules of the game that the hotels have set up. Besides, I'm paying quite a bit for the privilege of playing the game. There are other structures (e.g., Priceline) for people who don't want to do this and would rather not pay rates nearly as high as what I will on these upcoming stays.