Originally Posted by aku
...Suppose I get a credit card that gives me 20K RDM and 5K EQM at the start, and I spend $35k to get another 35K RDM and 5K EQM. So, the CC company has paid for 55K RDM and 10K EQM. I don't know how much they pay for the miles, but I imagine it's less than what we value them at, so let's say those miles cost about $1000 for the RDM and $250 for the EQM...
What the banks pay the airlines for miles is a well-kept secret. The best informed guess is 1 cpm, maybe less, in any event not much more.
Originally Posted by biggestbopper
...IMHO it is better to have, say, 2 UAL personal cards and 3 business cards and get 100K bonus miles than just have the personal cards and get a "mere" 40K...
But why "2 UAL personal cards and 3 business cards" rather than 5 UAL personal cards? Do you think it would be easier to get the former combo because they look at personal and business cards separately rather than to get all the cards as business ones?