Hi TSUAlum93 -- welcome to the HP corner of FlyerTalk.
The BofA visa card is a great suggestion. If you to go the Flight Fund section of the America West.com site, you will see a promotion that they are running through April 15. If you take four round trips, sign up for some partner stuff and stay in one of the partner hotels or rent a car a few times you can also earn 5,000 miles THAT COUNT TOWARD ELITE STATUS. This is a pretty generous offer, especially if you're going to do most of this stuff anyway. You have to register for this promotion, so don't forget to do that. Then, as you look at the options to maximize your other Flight Fund miles earning options, you'll not only be increasing your points, but earning your way toward this extra bonus.
To the extent that you travel enough to possibly reach the gold level of Flight Fund, there's a big difference in upgrade potential. Silver is still good but there's a lot of them. You'll get upgraded much more often if you're gold.
Good luck!
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Moderator for Starwood and America West