Just a quick thought up front, but there is a massive wealth of information on these forums, has anybody ever considered creating a companion site to index and categorize all the info here? I use Talkspot for my websites, which provides a free website editor as well as tons of free webspace. You can even restrict viewing to members.

At any rate, just tossing that out there as an idea.

Efrem, I've actually been solely using AA ever since my split with Delta. I have signed up for both programs just now, so we shall see.

Grasshopper: "(sorry, couldn't resist)" Don't worry, it made me chuckle, so it rocks.

I'll be following your advice on multiple programs (am creating my own index to keep track of them all,) but I just need to know how flying on one carrier gets me miles on another.

XStAnt, the trip is only annual, as is the vacation, but I see the vacation getting more frequent as my stocks fatten up. So I guess the trick would be to figure out how those programs and cards would work with foreign AND domestic hotels.