With hotels you can usually maintain Silver or equivalent status on many and Gold on a few since we stay at a lot of them. On airlines you can maintain Silver status on several and higher status if you can concentrate on fewer. I have stayed platinum on Delta for several years now with little difficulty. Also, I can use the 60,000 miles annually that it takes to maintain Skylounge membership and still gain miles in my total each year. Really, the airline equation is driven mostly by where you live in relation to where your base is. From Montana to most of the places I need be, Delta is most often the best choice anyway.