Hi Molson

I'm a long time lurker and rarely post here, but seeing as you're Canadian....

There is no "right answer" to your questions necessarily, but here are a few thoughts and a couple questions:

1. There are a few Aeroplan cards that have decent signup bonuses. The same could be said for Amex (non aeroplan) and they would offer you flexibility to transfer to programs of choice.

2. In terms of earning, Aeroplan are pretty easy for non-travel earning (and lousy for flight earning). AA and US Air Dividend Miles are pretty easy to earn on both sides of the border, if you have any travel related expenses (air, hotel, car). For example, AA has a promo with Avis right now - 7,500 AA miles for a 1-wk rental. Can't beat that.

3. Churning is not for everybody. If uncomfortable and not very detail oriented, don't do it.

4. See above.

5. More segments can equal more miles and status faster. Useful if you travel even somewhat occasionally.

Questions:

-For Disney travel, have you considered flying out of Buffalo, instead of redeeming points? Southwest, Jetblue, Spirit and Allegiant (out of Niagara) are very competitive for Florida. Jetblue also has family pooling for points and that can be much more useful for free flights, than having scraps of points across five separate accounts.

Any real advice will come down to your travel objectives, whether you already travel somewhat for work and your monthly ccard spend.

I see points as a long term game, similar to investing and tend to build larger point balances in certain programs, smaller in several others.

Hope this helps