Honestly... you hafta do some serious frequent flying to reap the benefits. Many airlines have increased the number of miles needed to redeem for a free ticket or imposed ridiculous capacity controls that makes you jump through hoops or spend double the amount of miles for a non-capacity controlled award. Some frequent flyer programs nowadays do not give elite status credit for purchasing cheap fares.
Trick I learned from hanging out on the FlyerTalk frequent flyer forums (
www.flyertalk.com) : for most airlines you can begin booking for reward travel as early as 330 days before your planned travel date; this is especially helpful if you're trying to snag a freebie ticket to Hawaii or other very popular destinations, especially near holiday periods.
As for elite status, it ain't all that cracked up to be. Most airlines deliberately limit the capacity of First Class, and on heavily traveled routes where there is a lot of business travel you're SOL unless you are in the top tier of the elites.
Hootie: if you still have your Mileage Plus number, you may be able to call the MP service desk and ask them to reset your password. It is possible your miles are still there but in 'limbo'. Most airlines will keep FF miles active for three years after your last transaction date (earn, redeem, etc.).
One cheap way to get credit for FF mileage and keep your account active: take advantage of the little offers that pop up once in a while, such as buying flowers online or something like that.