Originally Posted by grandgourmand

#1 is RBC Avion. I believe you get once a year 20% conversion bonuses to Amex.
#2 some people convert Aeroplan to AA via Esso Points to RBC Avion (not sure how it works, someone else can pipe in)
#3 Sign-up bonuses for SPG Amex card. Get 20k currently for both personal and biz version. Can be converted to AA at 1.25:1 when converting in 20k lots. Then for daily spend it's equivalent to 1.25AA miles per $ spend if you stick to converting in 20k lots only (i.e. SPG to AA).
#4 Get sign up bonuses for Amex cards. Convert to SPG at 0.5:1 and then to AA...works out to 0.625:1. Not a great ratio, but if you target first-year-fee cards such as the personal and business gold it's not bad. Biz gold 40k points for 5k of spending in three months = 20k SPG points = 25k AA points for "free".

For everyday spend it's either RBC Avion or the SPG Amex card. If you don't mind the $399 annual fee, the RBC Avion Prestige collects Avion points at 1.25x/$.

The other suggestions I made are mainly to take advantage of sign-up bonuses and to ultimately convert to AA points. They are not great conversion ratios, but if you really want to focus on AA then go that route.

I'm thinking along the same lines but...waiting to see if AA devalues the program. Seems they are about due. But since I'm mainly collecting flexible points currencies (MR, SPG)...I don't have all my eggs in one basket.