[QUOTE=pinniped]Dang. Now I understand why FT'ers aren't drooling over this card. It's just like every other half-baked home-grown points card on the market: full of vaguely-described benefits, exclusions, restrictions, overnight changes, poor processes, poor definitions, and deteriorating value to the end user over time.QUOTE]

Yep.

Not only is the Starwood card a great value numbers-wise, but unlike the Merrill card's obstacle course of restrictions, Starwood essentially has none. In fact, you could argue that Starwood is undervalued when just comparing the numbers, because of the substantial intangible value that comes from the program's extreme flexibility (i.e., the ability to xfer to other programs at a competitive rate.