Thanks so much for your replies! This is very helpful to me so keep them coming. I have a question...

If I have a non-airline card like the MBNA WorldPoints card for instance, and earn a free ticket with the card, can I then earn miles from the airline even though the ticket was 'free'? I'm just trying to understand the nuts and bolts of how this works, and can't seem to find that "Air Miles for Dummies" book anywhere.... ;-)

And yes, to my knowledge MBNA is still using Carlson who owns Travelocity.

Julie