I've been reading up as much as I could on the different travel based rewards cards (though with untrimmed postings with info that is years old, it was a bit difficult!) and I haven't seen anything on the Elite Rewards program. It seems to be that the Starwood Preferred Guest is the "card of choice" and while it has a nice selection of hotels as well as a few 1:1 ratios of exchange for US airlines, the Elite Rewards seems to have a pretty good program as well. It was more difficult for me to find information on the program, but once I did it looked pretty good.

20k miles for 1 coach ticket inside 48 contiguous states, couldn't get exact airline names, all I got was "No blackout dates or seat restrictions on over 125 U.S. based airlines". There is no annual fee on the card. The hotels you can use the Elite card for are of a much lower quality, but I'm drawn to the ability for an even greater flexibility in using my points in terms of airlines. There is a 7500 pt cap per month however, which while it won't be a problem for me, may be a problem for some.

Anyway, signup bonuses aside (10k starpoints is very nice of course) what experience do you guys have with this card, or what are your opinions?

Thanks!