If you later decide to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (40,000 pts) or Chase Ink Bold card (50,000 pts), you would be able to transfer the Ultimate Rewards points earned on your Freedom card to the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold Ultimate Rewards account, and from there you could transfer them to United, British Airways, Korean, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, or Amtrak. When transferring points to United and redeeming them for international flights in a premium class, you can easily get more than two cents value per point, thus doubling the return on your spending. In May 2011 I redeemed 80,000 AA miles for two off peak coach tickets from Seattle to Rome, Italy. The tickets cost $1100 each, so I figured that I got $0.0275 per point value.

In general it is best to start with a travel goal and focus on one or two loyalty programs. American and United both have great frequent flyer programs if they work from your home airport. I believe you can get a higher return by booking tickets with frequent flyer miles, than by using a program that gives you a fixed value per point (generally $0.01 to $0.0133 per point). However, you need to plan further ahead, be flexible, and sometimes persistent to use them. Some people would rather use a fixed value program because it is so much easier.

I would recommend starting with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card because it works with the Freedom card you already have. But the Citi AA cards have their advantages also.