You can pretty much get any spend you need using that coin thing that is like 1,000 pages long on this forum. Some people are averse to it. I've done a couple of times, but nothing in comparison to a lot of people here.

The AA card is a pretty good deal. This forum is where I got the information for High Tone a few weeks ago. Just AA isn't as useful out of Houston.

Look into the United card also? Since United and Continental are merging accounts in about a year, you can double up on miles for CC sign ups.