And regarding flights this didn't try to take advantage of some of the common flight booking tricks which can reduce fares much deeper like stopovers, +/- days, and airline switching which are harder to search.
I went through the effort to sign up for all the loyalty programs and I travel some for work (or at least I did) - probably 6-12 weeks a year?
The loyalty programs were mostly negligible in value they provided. Some (like Amex Platinum rewards) were so hostile to get the value from it made me irritated to use it - not a direct hotel loyalty example, but a lot of them felt like this (calculated to give you the least value possible). Airline loyalty sucks and is a pain to use.
The CSV card was probably the only exception to this that I can think of.
It was amazing -- lounge access, free upgrades, free limos, free food and drinks, front of the line, expedited service everywhere, endless gifts (who doesn't need more socks?) It was a pretty good year to fly. :-)
Hotel loyalty is a whole different ballgame because the margins that hotels pay to the booking sites are much higher (20-30%). For a long time hotels were contractually obligated to give the aggregators their lowest publicly available price ("most favored nation" - some recent EU regulation may have cut down on this, not sure what the current status is). One way of getting around that is direct marketing, so hotels are highly incented to get you to sign up for a loyalty program, give you 10% off, and keep the other 10% that would otherwise go to Booking/Expedia.
Business travelers are much less price discriminatory and so airlines get fatter margins. They loyalty programs end up transferring value from your firm to you.
Hotels were always something I signed up for and used when I could but I never did unnatural acts to do so. May be different especially if traveling domestically primarily to $BIGCHAIN which almost always has an option.
For instance... If you travel with no checked bags ever, and you fly on an airline that requires you to pay for checked bags. You won't see the value of having free checked bags when you achieve an airline status. There's lots of little things like this.
I didn't care about checked bags. If I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a limited (and expiring) $200 credit it mostly annoys me more than helps.
Hotel stays and checked bag fee waivers will put you way into the green.
You don't get the airline credits by default you have to register with one through their shitty website. You also have to choose a specific airline, CSR lets you just use the credits on any travel by default.
I don't like paying $550/yr fee for something where I'm supposed to be the customer and then have every feature feel like something I have to read the fine print for so I don't get screwed.
I ended up just switching to the Apple Card. While the rewards are subpar, at least the software is best in class and they make GS agree to not sell your transactions to third parties.
The best Amex feature was the Delta lounge access (only when flying on Delta) - the Delta lounges are really nice, particularly the one at SFO. The Amex lounges are great too, but there aren't many of them and they're often in terminals that are inconvenient (or United - which I try to avoid at all costs).
I think there's probably an opening here for a startup with a credit card that's actually good.
Most of the other programs you just sign up once. It's so easy, I don't understand what you're complaining about. If it's difficult for you to use the benefits, you probably aren't the target type of customer for that card.
The merchant discounts and event ticket presales/reserved seating are a massive boon. I get just shy of front row seating at many events because of AmEx. There's usually at least $50 in merchant discounts available each month that I'll use.
It should be granted up front for uber use over the year, not spread out each month to try to scam you out of it.
With CSR you get a $300 travel credit that's automatically applied to any flights or car services. When you book travel you can use credits to reduce flight cost with a slider. It's much nicer for the user.
Signing up isn't technically challenging - it's forcing me to do it that bothers me. I don't like Comcast style customer relationships. If you're giving the reward just give it to me, don't make me jump through hoops.
For the loyalty programs you don't see the value immediately, you need to travel a fair bit before those programs start having much/any return. Initially try to stick with the same couple of brands to maximize the loyalty programs. Try to apply a corporate rate code to any hotels and car rentals, makes a huge difference.
Figure out what airline local to you has the most/best routes that you want to take and stick with it. That may depend on where you want to fly too.. so spend some time figuring that out.
Basically. Pick an airline and travel with them whenever you can. Enroll in all the hotel loyalty programs but they're mostly not worth over-optimizing around. If you travel a lot, premium credit cards may make sense.
It doesn't matter much until you're travelling what most people would consider a lot. But then it can start to become significant in terms of money and/or comfort.