Originally Posted by
mreed911
Edit to add: welcome to Flyertalk, and congrats for your first post not being a gripe!
^
The Platinum card may be a good option, at least for the first year if you can tolerate the annual fee. If you end up using the $200 airline reimbursement, it effectively cuts the fee in half. Having it will upgrade your MR Express points to the MR First program.
After the first year, you can downgrade to the Gold Premier Rewards - lower fee but still keep the MR points. Alternately, cash in the MR points and get the SPG credit card (for point flexibility) or one of the DL cards if that is your main airline.