Both my wife and I have 2 Alaska Airlines credit cards each. We waited about 3 years from the first application to the second application and collected 50,000 miles each. You do have to pay the yearly fee on each card but we have 4 companion ticket.

A great deal is using your Alaska Airlines miles on American Airlines. They discount mileage to Europe Oct. 15 - March 15th for 40,000 miles instead of the usual 60,000 miles

You can also obtain both a personal Choice Privileges credit card
and business Choice Privileges credit card. This is currently worth 24,000 points plus 24,000 points for a total of 48,000 points. Choice usually has a promotion going where you earn 8,000 points after staying at a Choice hotel twice. Check their website for specific details.

The real value is using these points for hotel stays in Europe. A 225 euro rate for a hotel room in Rome can be reserved for 10,000 points. Thats 1 Euro equals about $1.40 Canadian.

Aeroplan miles are very difficult to redeem so I only use it when collecting points at Esso, Home Hardware, etc.