I'm not sure any miles or travel rewards card is a good plan. Given the uncertainty and arbitrary value of miles and points, I made a conscious decision after 9/11 last year to discontinue using any points or miles-based credit card and switching to a cash back card. There's nothing stopping a carrier from releasing fewer or no reward seats, or arbitrarily increasing the number of "miles" or "points" required for an award. While getting 1% cash back on my credit card may be less valuable than tens of thousands of miles per year right now, the value of cash is fixed (and once I earn it, it's mine in the bank), while the value of miles are arbitrary and are determined by the airline. Miles can be devalued if they change reward availability, terminate or reduce service to a particular destination, change the redemption scheme, or if the airline goes belly up.

Cash is cash, and I'd rather have something certain now than some "miles" or "points" based currency arbitrarily controlled by an airline or credit card company.

[This message has been edited by channa (edited 10-11-2002).]