Stefan Daystrom, Your right - if someone is truly going to only spend a couple hundred $ a year on a card, your suggestion may be the best. But if they are really only going to spend a couple hundred a year, it really doesn't make a lot of difference which card they go for. $2 - yeah, its something, but not worth much of my time trying to figure out.
I guess I assume the OP would use the card enough to make it worth it. I would recomend the MBNA Amtrak card - if the OP does any significant spending internationally this alone will make it quite worthwhile. As
gleff helpfully pointed out there are many ways to earn Amtrak points - getting to 5,000 is not that hard. But if the OP really is only going to use for $200 a year and not do anything else to earn Amtrak Points (for UA miles), your right, this is not a good option.
Originally Posted by Stefan Daystrom
In case you didn't notice, the poster of the original question (whom I was replying to) was specifically looking for a MasterCard (to use mostly for MC-specific promos), but all the programs he actively particpates in currently only partner with either Visa or Amex. If that weren't his case, my recommendation might be completely different (for example, a 1 mile/$2 no-annual-fee card for one of those FF programs).
Please explain to me how needing expensive tickets makes it worthwhile to subject yourself to a 90% devaluation by going through a points-transfer service or how earning a few hundred points a year on a card which has a 5000-point transfer threshold? (Because those seem to be the main point/mile-earning options he has right now with MasterCard relative to the FF programs he prefers.)