Thank you -- I think we're leaning towards the United Explorer (?) card. We don't travel as a family very much (maybe three times a year), and my husband might have an occasional business trip. We don't even need great seats; we just want to avoid the agony of having no seats and having to wait until the day of departure when the airport releases whatever (terrible) seats they have left, and we're certainly not looking to upgrade to business class, but rather, to avoid being assigned to four different middle seats scattered throughout the plane (I'm exaggerating a bit here). That said, I still think the biggest priority is to try to save on baggage fees, and to be honest, I'm realistically thinking that there's not much we can do to help our seating situation, short of paying for better seats (which I'm not sure I'm willing to do!). If we can at least break-even on baggage fees with the purchase of a credit card that allows for some free bags, for instance, then the other perks (e.g., free lounge access) will be a bonus.