Hey all. I realize this topic has been beaten to death so I'm going to apologize in advance but I have done a lot of reading and a lot of the posts are of varying quality and age so I'm not sure what's changed and what hasn't.

Some of what I've read included buying coins from the fed which is a loophole they apparently closed.

I've read about using shopping portals (which I've subsequently researched) and other things that net you small increases but is there anything to do to say... game the system?

Mostly I'm leaning in the direction of purchasing gift cards and reselling them or even purchasing travelers checks (if possible) and cashing them to pay the bill. There's a lot of discussion on this but not a lot of definitive opinion either one way or the other.

I own a business so I have a bit of an advantage in that I spend about 10 - 15k a month (currently on an Amex platinum) on that. So I have a healthy start but I'd really like to build off of that.

Currently I'm putting the majority of my purchases on an American Express platinum but from what I gather, the points don't transfer 1:1 to airlines. I'm not entirely keen on that. Is there a better card to have?

I plan on getting the BA card with the 100k avios as well as the two Citi AA Advantage cards for their signup bonuses. In addition, I also have a IHG Priority Club Visa w/ the 60k signup bonus.

So, is there an ideal card I want to sign up for that both optimizes my points earnings, gives me a decent signing bonus and transfers 1:1 to a wide variety of partner programs or am I trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow here?

Also, am I on to anything with purchasing gift cards to accrue points?

First post... My business has me flying a lot this year and even before I could really relate to most of what's discussed here, I found myself lurking the FT forums for a few years just because there's a lot of interesting information to garner from the site.