I have a gold American Express, and i get points that i can apply to hotels or airlines. They often run programs where if you buy at certain stores or certain products (groceries, gas, etc) you get double. And, i believe it’s 1 dollar = 1 point with them. If you go platinum (which they’ve offered, for a fee, of course), everything is double points, and you get a companion ticket when you buy a business class ticket.