Okay, I'm going to do Starwood Lurker's job here. :-)

Why don't you get the American Express co-branded with Starwood and just accumulate one starpoint per dollar instead of using MR? I understand that the flexibility of MR is nice, but surely going forward you are better off with many more starpoints this way than the flexibility? You could even turn them into UA or AA miles. The past, as is usual, probably can't be changed. :-)

Charles