First of all, you're mixing two things here. Worldperks is Northwest's frequent flyer program, in which you earn miles, not points.

Eaglepoints I've never heard of, but from the sound of the name, it sounds like some points program, and from your description, it sounds like one of those many "fake miles" cards, where you can't combine what you earn on that credit card with earnings anywhere else, and they buy a regular ticket for you, as opposed to redeeming it for an award ticket.

With Worldperks, you can pretty much always redeem a ticket at "rule buster" rates. That's 50k miles for a domestic coach ticket. The 25k mile awards are more restricted, and it depends a lot on how flexible you are and how "busy" a time period you want to fly (for example, way harder to get tickets during those holidays when most people travel).

But with Worldperks, you aren't restricted to just credit card earnings, since it's a normal FF program (like American's AAdvantage). You can choose to earn miles for hotel stays, car rentals, etc, and you can choose to participate in bonus miles promotions.

With the average "fake miles" card, there's none of that. You just earn for your credit card purchases, no more, no less, and can't do anything with that until you reach a treshold.

Oh, one more thing: I've seen several "fake miles" programs (tho the ones I'm thinking of weren't tied to credit cards) go under before I could ever earn enough to get an award! That's WAY lot less likely with a major "real" miles (frequent flyer) program, even with those airlines that are in bankrupcy!

But if you fly American almost exclusively, why don't you get the AAdvantage MC? That way your credit card earnings will pool together with your flying earnings, and you'll get to awards way quicker than if you split things up. The main reason for getting into WorldPerks would be if you want to fly Northwest in the future to a destination that American doesn't cover as well (Northwest is typically better for the Orient, for example, while American is typically better for South America).

But the decision should be first whether you want to join and accrue in the Worldperks FF, and THEN whether you want to get the Worldperks Visa as ONE of the methods of accrueing there. (For example, right now you'll earn 10000 miles more if you join Worldperks first, sign up for their current Fly Free Faster 2004 promo, and THEN apply for the Worldperks Visa, and then do 5 "partner transactions" such as iDines, than if you do those things in a different order.)

And that 10000 mile bonus is a perfect example of why you need to factor in the promos that "real" FF programs have to compare FF program credit cards to "fake miles" credit cards.