Hi demigawd. I think you missed some important points in your analysis because you can't take the programs in isolation. When doing your calculations, you are including the hotel points for the Marriott and Starwood cards. For example, take the United card. You say all you get is 171,000 miles. But you're forgetting that you can also get 168,750 Starwood points from your hotel stays. If you count the 3 SPG points for one card, you have to account for them with the other cards to make a fair comparison, too.