Thanks for the really great analysis. Pantanal, I had wanted to know if there was anything superior to the United Club, and now I know that there isn't. We have just started and don't have enough miles for such premium travel yet, but are looking forward to it. We definitely don't charge as much as you do. Centrifuge41, I am not familiar with Club Carson, and will definitely check it out. I've been an SPG for a long time b/c of the easy value of the lower tier hotels. Since business spending isn't on AmEx so much, I'm looking at Hyatt (and now Club Carson) more closely.

Waylook...just one other pointer to give you a different point of view

Some cards will give you elite status based on just spending so if that is important to you you may want to look at the delta reserve card that not only gives you elite status but give you bonus points/threshold bonus

Also you may want to look at the citibank hilton card and charge exactly 40k on it

Here is what that 40k will get you
1) 2 free nights on any Hilton (including waldorf property) as a sign on bonus
2) Diamond status on hilton for almost two years. Believe me diamond status is hard to get from stays but this 40k spend is the easiest way to get it. This is Hilton's top status. No other program gives you this kind of status from a spend
3) By spending 10k you will also get an additional night on any Hilton/waldorf property. So now you have 3 free nights on any property..even ones that will charge 100k points a night after the devaluation.
4) Finally the 40k spend will get you 120k Hlton points that you can redeem for several lower/medium tier nights.
5) You would also have access to the Hilton discounted Glon awards assuming Hilton does not kill them.

I did put the 40 k spend on this card personally for the diamond status

The question you should ask yourself is how high you and your wife value Premium class travel. If not too high, you could go for Capital One Venture: 2 points for every purchase, easily redeemable on their site. If you do want to travel in Premium class then the suggestion above might be better solutions.

I was going to go with Hilton until the devaluations came. The 3 nights at a Waldorf property would be nice. May just put 20K on it for that reason. I'm looking for mainly award stays, so the diamond status probably won't mean much with the devaluations.

The Capital One card could be an easy no fuss way to do things. I usually try to squeeze out a minimum of 2.5% out of my cards though.

As far as Delta goes, I keep hearing two things about it. 1) that their elite program is amazing. 2) that its incredibly difficult to actually redeem the miles due to low availability.

Given #2, I don't forsee giving them a chance.

Unfortunately, we can't utilize Amex so we are missing out on Membership points. I will try it out though when a high sign on comes up. I read about transferring to Singapore and redeeming RT domestic 1st/business seats for 40K on United. That seems like a great redemption.

Instead of straight points per dollar, you may get some value out of flexibility. You mentioned you like Membership rewards and SPG points. You also said you'd like airline miles and Hyatt points. As such, I would suggest you consider an Ultimate Rewards card, instead of putting all of your spend in one miles/points bucket.

While UR is 1 point/$, they give a rebate at the end of the year that is supposed to make UR value at 1.27 point per $ (or something like that). As such, you are loosing a half a mile compared to the United Club card, but gaining flexibility and saving on the high annual fee. You can use UR with any of the major airline alliances and at Hyatt hotels, as desired.

Another option you may want to consider is the Citi Hilton Reserve card. Gary at A view from the Wing blog makes the case of getting this card and putting only $10,000 annually on it. With the card and $10k spend, you get Gold status (decent for hotels), an annual weekend free night certificate, and 30,000 HHonors points, which gets a one night stay at a mid-level hotel. This is a good case for spreading the love around the cards.

Good luck!