Thank you all for the help.
MileKing: you have brought up an interesting point that I hadn't thought of, a debit card. I might go for a debit card if the others don't pan out because of its simplicity of use.

On the other hand, it might cause more stress because since I'm already tied to a bank (who I work for) and to a credit union (member for 13 years), I don't really want to start another deposit relationship.

And I would have to shift money to that account in anticipation of spending. I have monthly utility bills that I would like to pay by credit card, but they only accept MC/Visa, and I think a credit card would be better because I would have a little "float" and I wouldn't have to worry about timing the money to be there before the bill hits.

But I'm going to definetly keep this option open!

ssbl: That British Airways card sounds pretty good! But can those BA miles be transferred to any domestic carriers? I don't fly BA and I don't know if I'll be getting enough AMEX MR miles to shift over to BA for a meaningful award.

The Northwest offer would be perfect, but I thought that was over! I'll see if I can resurrect it.

The other cards I don't think I'll bother with because I do most of my spending on AMEX, so I'll only gather maybe 3000-5000
miles on this Visa/MC. It's mainly going to be a supplementary card so that I don't let any miles slip away!

Thanks again!

Mac


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Via con Dios!