Thanks for the fast reply! I really do appreciate the time "donated" by the junkies who hang out in forums like this!

I have an MBA in finance, I an responsible for analyzing billions of dollars of spending in the company I work for, I have 7 kids with special needs...and yet none of those can prepare one for the complexities of dealing with mileage programs, airline travel/fares, etc. I was reading one of the threads about how spouses view the "addiction" some of the people here have towards optimizing miles, and I can understand how you could really, really get into all this stuff.

At this point, I'm more into the "low hanging fruit" theory of rewards - if I can get a decent scheme going with no thought on my part, that's "good enough" for now, with everything else going on in my life. So, for now, I'll stick with cashback cards and the occasional "great deal" for miles until maybe I get more time and experience with all this.

And yes, I did finally find the FAQ about using miles for other names on the UA mileage plus website. I had tried to find it earlier, but missed it.

That being the case for UA, and I'm assuming somehow I can use "my" amex miles for both of us in some fashion, I guess I can feel better about not worrying about how I was going to explain to my wife that I was going to fly first class to alaska and she was going to fly with the chickens in third class because all the credit cards were in my name.