hi everybody,

This is my first post of hopefully many here. I've never paid much attention to frequent flyer programs mainly because I never traveled enough for it to make sense, and certainly not enough to justify paying $200+ extra for one airline over another just to accrue more points.

However, this all changed a few weeks ago when I took a consulting job that requires nonstop travel. 5 days and two flights per week all over the country, along with at least three overseas trips per year to central europe.

My company has no regulations or guidelines or preferred hotels or flights, and I pay for everything myself (flights, hotels, meals, entertainment, etc.) but get reimbursed for it. So basically it's a total blank slate for me.

I live in Chicago, which is a United hub, though my favorite airline is Continental. My traveling isn't really restricted to a region, per se, but we have yet to acquire any West Coast clients. We do have a lot of clients in Georgia, Texas, DC and NYC.

So here's the dilemma. I'm looking into different frequent flyer/stayer programs and credit cards to join and it seems they each have their own positives and negatives and it's a bit overwhelming to measure them all and figure out the best approach to take. Just to demonstrate I'm not lazy and this isn't just another x vs. y program thread, I've done a bit of homework and narrowed things down to the following:

Chase Premier United Visa (and United program)
Chase Marriott Rewards Card (and Marriott program)
Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX Card (and Starwood program)
Capital One No Hassle Miles Credit Card
Diners Club Rewards Card (I don't own a car, so I don't know how the primary auto insurance feature affects or doesn't affect me)

Here is what I've anticipated spending on average (assuming 45 weeks of traveling per year, no car rental):

Flight miles: 1600 miles/2 segments per week = 72,000 qualifying miles per year
Flight cost: $350 per r/t flight per week = $15,750 per year in flights
Hotel stays: $250 per night/5 nights per week = $56,250 per year in hotels
meals: $50 per day = $11,250 per year in meals

All of these are 100% reimbursed by my company, and I don't anticipate having to carry a balance unless my company is slow to pay (remains to be seen). Also, given the number of qualifying miles I'll earn, I think most earnings caps on United will be waved before I hit the cap.

I love international travel, and over the next several years I would love to visit New Zealand, India, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, China, Dubai, Greece and Morocco. Because my company is European, I came up with the clever notion of doing most of my Eastern Hemisphere travel by booking vacation time immediately after company meetings (2-3x per year) and therefore flying directly from Europe for big savings.

Now, as I understand, i need not own my own business to get a business credit card - I'm just listed as a sole proprietor and I must use the card for business expenses only. So I'm functioning under that assumption. If that is incorrect, please let me know.

I'm therefore using the business version of most of these cards. That said, here's what I've calculated for each of the candidates. Please correct any incorrect assumptions since i'm totally new to the rewards program world.

Chase United Mileage Plus Platinum Business Card
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2 miles for every $1 spent on United Purchases (I'm not sure if that includes hotel/car bookings made through United as well, which makes a big difference)
25,000 bonus miles
1 mile per $1 on all other purchases

Chase Marriott Premier Visa Signature Card (and Marriott program)
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15,000 bonus points
5 points for every $1 spent at Marriott locations
2 points for every $1 spent on plane tickets, food, rental cars
1 point per $1 on every other purchase
50k miles for 125k points transfer

It appears when joining the Rewards program that you can choose to earn miles instead of points at a rate of 2 miles per dollar spent, but I'm not sure how that works with the credit card, which is only described in points, not miles (though you can transfer points into miles).


Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX Card (and Starwood program)
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10,000 bonus points
1 point per $1 spent (credit card)
2 points per $1 spent on hotels (credit card)
3 points extra per $1 spent on hotels (gold, platinum, which I would get quickly)
5000 bonus points upon transferring 20000 points to miles
1 point per mile transfer rate*
*appears to be half that for United, whose hub is my home airpoint

Capital One No Hassle Miles Credit Card
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2 points per $1, which can be used for miles for any number of airlines, or points for hotels, or anything else.
Points can be redeemed for 100x the value of the ticket. I get reimbursed by redeeming the points (so a $600 ticket will cost 60,000 Capital One points)

Diners Club Rewards Card
-------------------------
1 point per $1, which can be used for hotels, air miles, etc. Points are redeemed directly for miles, not reimbursed like Capital One.


Looking it over, it seems that I would get the following points based on my projected spending in a year:

Chase Premier United Visa (and United program)
------------------------
171,000 miles (196,000 first year)


Chase Marriott Rewards Card (and Marriott program)
--------------------------
184,500 using the miles program (2 miles for $1 spent at hotels + United miles) (no credit card membership necessary, it seems)

and/OR (?)

335,250 Marriott Rewards points (5 points per $1 hotels, 2 points per $1 for air, food).

This doesn't include the elite upgrade bonuses from silver to gold to platinum over the course of the first year, which would amount at about 420,000 points, and a full year max of 435,825

Using lowest exchange rate from Marriott points to miles (2000 miles:10,000 points), that's only 67,050 miles. But using max exchange rate (50,000:125,000 points), that's 134,100 miles. Taking into account the elite bonus, that's 84,000 miles and 168,000 miles respectively.

I still don't yet understand how to combine or stack the frequent stay program with the credit card program. it looks as though the 5 points per $1 already stacks membership in the program, but I'm not sure.

Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX Card (and Starwood program)
----------------------------
Assuming they stack (and it looks like they do), I'd be getting 5 points per $1 spent on rooms as a Gold/Platinum Preferred guest and one point on everything else. So that should be:

380,250 Starwood points or 475,312 miles

or 264,657 United miles (didn't halve the qualifying miles, since I earned them on the flights directly. I also included the 5000 mile for 20,000 points bonus, though I'm not sure if United qualifies?)

Capital One No Hassle Miles Credit Card
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166,500 no hassle miles
and
72,000 qualifying miles (didn't combine them since they're non-compatible)

I will, however, earn additional qualifying miles for cashing in no hassle miles since it counts as a regular purchase as far as the airline is concerned (I just get reimbursed by Capital One). So the qualifying miles would increase to maybe 77,000 miles.


Diners Club Rewards Card (I don't own a car, so I don't know how the primary auto insurance feature affects or doesn't affect me)
------------------------------
155,250 miles


So looking it over, it appears that if I were to just get one card, that even with the United penalty, the Starwood card combined with Starwood membership is the best option. But that's largely because I don't understand how the Marriott Rewards membership works with the Marriott Rewards Credit Card. They were unclear in how the stacking might work since they describe the rewards membership as either a miles program or a points program but they describe the credit card program ONLY in terms of points (where you could transfer them to miles, but at a substantial "tax", it seems). It may be a better idea for me to post this specific question on the Marriott board. I apologize if that breaks a specific double-posting rule.

Assuming they stack with a penalty (meaning I can choose to accumulate miles through the membership AND I can accumulate points with their credit card), that would mean getting 5 points and 2 miles. Recalculating, that would amount to a potential maximum of 318,600 miles, because I would be combining 184,500 miles with the max exchange rate of 134,100 miles. If there's also a stackable elite bonus (6.5 points and 2.6 miles, respectively), that comes out to a max potential of: 218,250 membership miles + 168,000 credit card miles post-exchange = 386,250 miles.

Which would make the Marriott by far the better deal for United.

These mileage numbers seem so high that I know I'm doing something wrong (or am I?). So please feel free to point out any incorrect assumptions or calculations, since I'm eager to master the programs and bonuses here. There are hundreds of thousands of miles at stake!