Originally Posted by worldcupfan
My recommendations:
Hotel: In my opinion, Starwood has the best reward program. They are fantastic about upgrading platinum's to suites, no blackout dates and many hotels are available for 3000 - 4000 points. (You'll probalby earn that during 2 weeks travel using the Starwood Amex credit card). Some examples at that redemption rate include the Royal Orchid Sheraton in Bangkok (Conde Nast Gold list for 5 years), Le Meridien Angkor (closest hotel to Angkor Wat, Cambodia), many Four points (saved lots of money in Munich during Germany 2006 World Cup)
If you are traveling to cities with Sheraton, Westin, W, etc., I'd highly recommend Starwood.
If you decide to do the Starwood option, consider the United Ameniti program (search the United forum). Promotions offer something like 25K miles for $295 and you'll get Starwood gold status for accelerated point earning and room upgrades
Airline: If you are going to travel more than 200,000 miles per year, I highly recommended diversifying across 2 airlines to reach top status on each. You'll then have flexibility to choose by schedule when needed, have international upgrades on both airlines, have more options when you want to redeem miles, etc. I made the mistake of flying 240K miles on 1 airline during 1 year and regretted not getting top tier benefits on 2 airlines.
Credit card: Starwood Amex as suggested by others
Good luck adjusting to the constant travel.
I wholeheartedly agree with all of worldcupfan's advice, except for the UA Ameniti program. I can't speak from experience and could be persuaded otherwise, but if you search the UA forum for Ameniti you'll find lots of negative comments.
Starwood definitely has the best program in terms of number of quality properties and upgrade (to suites, better rooms, etc.) opportunities. It sounds like you'll be on the road so much that you'll have no problem reaching the platinum level, which means free upgrades, which you'll definitely appreciate if you're on the road a lot for work and when you go on vacation (sorry, I can't recall the exact number of stays or nights necessary, but you can find them at spg.com, the Starwood Preferred Guest site). Plus to the extent there's a FT consensus (perhaps a contradiction in terms) about credit cards, it's that the Starwood Amex is the best one.
I suspect that you might find that for reasons of cost or convenience you might not confine yourself to one hotel chain. Especially if that's the case, you should get hotel credit cards for whichever chains you might frequent. Most are free or low-cost, plus paying with them at the hotels with which they're affiliated gives you bonus points. And you need Visa and/or MCs anyway to supplement the Starwood Amex.
The consensus (that word again!) at the FT credit card forums is that signing up for a bunch of cards might take a slight toll on your credit rating, maybe 30 points, but that it bounces back within several months. The only exception to this advice is if you're about to buy a house or otherwise take out a loan, in which case you want to guard your rating more carefully.
In signing up for any credit card, find the online offers that give you points or miles just for signing up or your first purchase. Starwood Amex is advertising one right now that has 10,000 points for your first purchase--enough points for a night at a very nice hotel. If you search the credit card and hotel forums you'll find more useful advice about this and announcements about online CC/milre/points offers.
I'd offer the same advice for any airlines you might fly at all regularly. Get the AA card since you'll be in DFW. But also get other airline CCs if you'll be flying them at all. Not all airlines offer free cards the way most hotel chains do, but some airlines do so.
I also agree with the advice about going for top status on two airlines if you fly enough miles. I assume that AA will be one of them, but that could depend on where your main destinations are, so before committting to AA you might want to check out which airlines fly non-stop to where you'll be going. I have top status on both AA and UA and am glad because I get lots more free international upgrades and other perks that way.
I think you'll find the specific forums for hotels, airlines and the non-Amex, non-Diners club forum good resources for further advice and info on this stuff.
OT, and you probably don't need this advice, but I'll offer it anyway. If this is your first job with lots of travel, be aware that it's a lot tougher on the spouse who stays behind than the one on the road. Frequent emails, phone calls and/or flowers can help ease the burden for your wife, as will the nice vacations you two will take with the miles and points you'll pile up.
Anyway, congratulations on the new job!