Hi again,

I did all of this just calculating air miles, but I haven't taken into account hotel value. Out of curiosity, has anybody done a comparison/calculation yet of whether it's most cost effective to redeem points for miles, or to keep the points and use them for hotel stays? If not, I can run some numbers, but it seems like the kind of question that people have asked before and someone probably answered years ago.

Also, it seems that it may be a good idea to combine credit cards. So if I were to sign up for Marriott Rewards Premier Visa at 2 miles per $1 spent on Marriott AND signed up for the Chase United card at 2 miles per $1 spent on United flights, that comes out to 227,250 miles per year base, 261,000 miles with Platinum status + 25,000 first year United bonus. Does that sound about right?

Overall, it seems far and away the best value is signing up for Starwoods and NOT using United, since it seems unless my stacking theory is incorrect that I would be getting nearly half a million miles per year (that can't be right, lol).