Hi Everyone,

Happy Independence Day! I'm totally new to using airline rewards and could use some help. I'll be heading out of state for graduate school, but plan on returning home often to visit my family for weekend trips. I'm close with my family and some of them are getting older so I want to spend time with them even though I'm out of state. This would involve flying GRR to MSP and the only nonstop flight is on Delta, so I was thinking it would be a good idea to consider a rewards program. I'm confused about how Skymiles work as well as which Delta card would be best for me. I anticipate taking on average of two or three round-trip flights per month (each one is about $250 based on searches for a bunch of random weekends.) I also searched on Delta's site and that fare usually costs 19,000 miles and my understanding is that I earn 5 miles with every dollar. So does that mean that after 15 flights I should have about enough for a free weekend trip? 19000/(250*5)= 15

If I have an Amex Platinum card, does that mean I only need about 3 flights? 19000/(250*5*5)=3

I was thinking of signing up for Delta's Platinum card or the Amex Platinum Card, but I don't know if I'll be flying enough to justify the exorbitant fees (especially on the Amex card!) Lounge access really doesn't matter to me. You guys seem to have mastered a seemingly convoluted system so I really appreciate any guidance!