Originally Posted by
stevens397
First of all, welcome to FlyerTalk. As others will chime in - in terms of your question, it depends!
It's kind of like saying I want to buy a house. What should I get. Wait a minute! Where do you want to live? Kids? Want or need a backyard? How do you feel about commuting? You get the idea.
That's true, I didn't want to go deep into details to discourage people from reading long story 
Do you want points for flights, hotels or both? Do you want them for Economy air travel or Business/First Class? And what are your travel patterns and how do you see them evolving?
I usually fly economy, but thought that have miles can either use them for upgrade to higher class or get an award flight, no?
Also I don't mind having a hotel card, I'm looking for something most beneficial here, since for example I don't always stay in Marriott.
If they're giving air miles too, I'm happy to hear that.
I have also found it to be useful, however, for domestic coach since I can use it without converting to miles and just let Starwood buy me a ticket. I have had instances where Continental wanted 50,000 miles for a round trip while Starwood got me a revenue ticket for only 25,000 points. But as I said above, I usually save them for long-haul premium class travel. I have done well transferring the Starwood points to US Air during special promotions and have had some great trips. Finally, if you run limited dollars thru the card, you can get great redemptions from what they call Cash and Points for their hotel rooms.
Great points with examples, thanks!
I would like to use our points/miles for vacations so flight + hotel if possible.
In terms of another card, I think you will find that many on these boards have limited loyalty! We'll follow the latest promotion, use the card for a year and ditch it if something better comes along. I've been using the British Airways Visa since I got 100,000 miles free from them plus the Hyatt Visa since I have enough BA miles right now.
That's also true, however I thought that using one account with two CC assigned to it (one used by me another by my wife) would speed up the whole process of reaching certain number of miles since we're both collecting for that one - correct me if I'm wrong or there's better practice for couples.
Why are you limiting yourself to just one card?
I guess having multiple CC would affect my score? Not that I will need it soon, but I thought that banks would be careful seeing me carrying already X cards and wanting a new one.
The Citi AA promotions right now are fantastic and I'd highly recommend reading through that thread to get some more info.
I think so too, but I'd have to start everything from the beginning - is it worth it?
PS, at 80k+ miles you shouldn't be attributing to LH, imo. This can get you gold *A status on a handful of other airlines allowing you to enjoy all the benefits that come with it. I presume you fly a lot of NYC-Germany considering you attribute to LH, but * Gold will give you many benefits that you'll be able to enjoy.
Yes I use to live in Europe so continued using this one, however 80k is my award miles not the status miles.
There are long haul flights and hotels coming this year + I would really like to make the money I (we) spend working for our vacation, that's why I asked here for help.
You guys are awesomely helpful and feel free to comment more if you think you know the better way.