<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by quinella66:
You will also need a Visa/MC to back up the Amex, of course, depending on the amount of charges that you will accumulate that are non-Amex, that will determine if you should use a no-fee one to back up the Amex or a fee card. I have less than $500 per month that are non-Amex, so for me, it is not worth paying a fee for this card. That leaves a Hilton Visa, Amtrak Visa, or a number of Airline cards that give 1/$2.</font>
With standard airline affinity cards don't forget to consider bonuses.
Bonuses vary by airline and sometimes participating in just one makes the card worthwhile for years.
For example, in
2001 NWA Visa gave up to 15 miles/dollar for every dollar spent on NWA tickets.
Many flyers - who would have bought NWA tickets anyway - received the maximum bonus of 75,000 miles. NWA is not known for award availability, but the above promotion was worth a $950 Hawaii ticket for me. That pays for many years of annual fees.
I think hotel cards are better only if you regularly stay at the particular chain and thus get the higher hotel-charged points/dollar.
[This message has been edited by Family flyer (edited Jan 02, 2004).]