(1) I'm sorry you don't think AA fairly and reasonably lets you redeem miles. I have spent about 600,000 AA miles in the past 2 years for J tix to Europe (twice) and Hawaii for two people. I always got the dates I wanted. I have about 400,000 miles left and have slowed down my accumulation greatly, but just this week I was querying some 25K awards for my wife's family and found most of what I was looking for. Eventually I plan on tapering out of active accumulation of miles - and might even pick up a home-grown points card.

(2) I don't think the "sky is falling" on home-grown points. I know for a fact that a lot of the programs are half-baked and do not have robust online search/book tools like the airlines do. We are starting to see some programs that appear to be more well-thought-out: for example, I think Orbitz has some sort of card that actually has solid process and robust thinking behind it. (Can't confirm for certain - I've simply read good reviews about it.) Eventually - perhaps - Capital One will reach critical mass and decide their program is here to stay, and then they will beef it up. If you are pushing $35,000 per month through a home-grown points program, then you are relatively safe: you earn and burn quickly, and if you wake up tomorrow and your program is gone, you've only lost a month or two worth of "work". But if you were the guy who only spends $2,000/month and was saving to hit 50K for two tickets somewhere...

I honestly hope Capital One or - better yet, because I'm a member - USAA takes their program to the next level. If I have confidence that the program has staying power, then I'm likely to come on board. Earn coach tix with home-grown points, upgrade with FF miles, hotels with SPG points.

But - here's an example problem - I just tried to pull up the T&C's for Capital One Go Miles, and the link didn't work. Then I got directed to the sign-in page for existing cardmembers. Clearly, robust thought and efficient process hasn't been invested in this program yet. Why? Not enough members? Are they going to eventually roll it into something else? Kill it off altogether? Go Miles is different from the one they always snail-mail me about. Why two programs? Or is it three programs? (There is an "Ultra" program.) Why do I feel like there is a lot of fine print and poorly organized information here?