Actually I think 10k US airway mile is quite valuable. Since you only need 20k to fly round trip if you are US airway cardholder.

If you don't want to spend $50, I remember someone mention that you can redeem around $1 to buy a magazine to make your mile active.

The spend $80 to $100 to buy vanilla card to get to 20k US airway to get a roundtrip. Not a bad deal to me. Of course just my 2 cent.