HOTELS: In 2001, my thoughts were "hoard hotel points for the biggest awards, because that's where the best bang for the buck is". Now my opinion has changed 180 degrees: Hotel programs are fickle. Hotel programs don't care about my loyalty. I am in the process of redeeming my final few hotel award vacations, and it will forever be Priceline for me going forward. On my handful of business stays each year, I will evaluate current promotions and perhaps take advantage if there is a near-term reward (e.g., Take Two or FFN), but I will no longer hoard for ALOA's and things like that. And I will never pay more than the Priceline rate again for a leisure stay, because any hotel status below Platinum/Diamond has become a throwaway status.

AIRLINES: I'm approaching Lifetime Gold on AA, so I will probably focus travel there in the future. (Plus, AA works well for the routes I fly.) I like to buy cheap tickets, accumulate miles, and spend the miles for international upgrades. I rarely fly a straight award seat on AA, because I'd rather earn miles and upgrade. (Of course, it doesn't always work, and to places like Hawaii it used to make sense to just book the two-seat F awards.) I don't fret about using AA miles the instant I get them - a little inflation may bite me, but that's better than burning them on trips I don't really want to take to begin with.

For airlines on which I have no status, I spend the miles as soon as I have enough for a business-class seat.