A couple things...

(1) If you are planning on using airline miles to get a last-minute $500-1000 ticket, chances are you'll need 50,000 of them, not 25,000. There are exceptions, but don't bank on being able to lay out 25K every time you need a seat on the next flight out of town. (There is another thread about this on MilesBuzz right now, I think...)

(2) With any home-grown points card, you see a lot of half-baked processes and technology, with vaguely-written rules. I don't think it's a conspiracy: I just think these banks think up a program in a conference room, slap together a cr*ppy website, and roll it on out to see if people jump at it. Go look at any of the home-grown-points websites and compare them to a good, robust FF program site. We make fun of the glitches in AAdvantage and Marriott Rewards: those guys look like IT geniuses compared to the home-grown points people. Why should you care? Well, a redemption may require phone calls and red tape instead of a seamless online process. And the half-baked processes/rules usually get changed in the bank's favor if the program proves popular to "stick". If the program doesn't stick, you get a letter telling you that you are being converted to something else - probably less rewarding that what you started with.

(3) The new Cap 1 card looks good in that it appears that you can empty your points balance the first time you buy a >$100 plane ticket at any site (using the card, of course) after you've crossed 9000 points. In other words, I reach 9000 points, and my next AA.com or Delta.com ticket (regardless of whether it is $100 or $1000) gets $100 knocked off. A "normal" spender can redeem points a couple of times a year, and you have a rough approximation of a one-percent rebate card. The big "pro" here is that you don't need to build up 25,000 or more points - you can flush every 9K and get out as soon as they change the program in a way that you don't like.