I've spent several hours researching all of the non-airline credit cards offers, to find a replacement for my NEA card.

Elan from Firstar($55 fee) http://www.firstar.com/persfin/pers3-credit-fr.html

Evercard ($39 fee) http://www.everbank.com/main.asp?IdPage=pro_evm

MilesOne ($19 fee) http://www.capitalone.com/indexn.shtml

and First Union ($75 fee) http://www.firstunion.com/

All of these cards seem to have the best redemption rates, after NEA changes there structure on 12/31/01. Most of them give 2,500 bonus miles after first use of the card. I think that they all cap earnings at 10,000 miles per month, but I may be mistaken. All of them redeem at the same rate:

R/T within a zone 18,000 = $360 (NEA N/A)
R/T within US 25,000 = $500 (NEA $400)
Mex, Canada, Carib 35,000 = $700 (NEA $600)
Alaska, Hawaii 40,000 = $800 (NEA $600)
Europe 50,000 = $1000 (NEA $800)

The First Union Card earns 1.2 miles per dollar charged, the others are 1 mile per dollar. First Union will also let you redeem unused miles for cash at a rate of 1%.

Looks like I will be switching to First Union after my NEA changes. Of course by then who knows what other offers will be available???



[This message has been edited by Darla (edited 04-22-2001).]