Surely you will hold on to it for the two million lifetime platinum status!

What exactly is "lifetime" to you AA fliers these days?

Family flyer,

thanks for your advice. This will be my second card. For the last three years I have held the chase continental card. It's yearly fee is $45.00 and I spend about $30,000.

I guess the only reason I am not running toward the starwood is bc I don't stay in hotels. The last time I had to stay in one was almost 2 years ago. I guess I am wondering how much use it would be to someone who doesn't use hotels... Any thoughts on that one?

Whether you stay in hotels is irrelevant. First, let's assume you will only use air miles. With the SPG Amex you have tremendous flexibility because you can transfer to many airlines and get the bonus when moving 20K.

I wouldn't assume air miles are worthless. For every post on FT about redemption difficulties there's another post saying redemption (even to places like Hawaii) isn't a problem.

And if you build up a lot of SPG points, I don't see why you wouldn't use them for a free hotel stay. The benefit of adding the SPG Amex is that you cover not only your airfare (CO Mastercard), but your hotel (SPG) as well. So someday you take a vacation and just pay for food and a rental car.

I too am trying to simplify my cc situation too and am worried about my MP Visa miles. Isn't it somewhat of a drawback with the SPG card that you have to transfer in increments of 20,000 to get any bonus miles? If you need every last mile in the account transferred in order to get a tkt, do you make one transfer of 20,000 then another transaction for the remaining miles in the account if they are less than 20,000 and not get any bonus?

[quote]<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Family flyer:
[b]
The reason I woldn't use them for free hotels is that when I travel it is to one of three placecs. My family where I stay for free. NYC where I stay for frree with friends, or at one of my time shares which is already paid for. I just don't have the need for it. The free tickets are what I'm looking for.

I did apply a Starwood card last week, what I am really thinking about is the word �Active Member�. Sheraton usually is not a good choice for the destination I frequently travel to. But in order to keep my status as an �Active Member�, I will be focused to stay at a Sheraton or other Starwood owned properties once a year.

No you won't. This has been discussed. Starwood Lurker confirmed that by using the credit card, that this counts towards your annual usage.

You have answered your own question. With a MP Visa, you may have to worry about United. But with a SPG Amex, you don't have to worry because your miles aren't tied to one program.

As for the lack of bonus when transferring fewer than 20K ... Remember that there's nothing wrong with a 1:1 transfer - that's what most other cards give. Also, even without getting a bonus, you're still able to top off many program - a benefit few cards provide.

With all these sign up bonus mile offers, why not get them all?

Delta is _again_ offering their GOLD delta skymiles card with first year annual fee waived and 10,000 bonus miles.

United Mileage Plus VISA offers 15,000 bonus miles for $60 annual fee. Also, for each free-additional card you request, you get 2500 miles (I requested 3, so that's 7500), ALSO, if you pay $25 and upgrade to the Gold Mileage Plus VISA, you get another 5000 miles. I did all that. total 27500 miles for $85!

The amex starwood card is really good. You can wait until they have another sign up bonus promotion. I got 5000 for getting that card.


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AirmileOffers.com

It took me a long time to fix my credit and getting all of these cards, even if I closed them before the renewal it would damage my credit. I'm looking for one card to go with the one I already have.

If you fly US Airways the most, I would strongly urge you to get the BofA card because they typically run various cardholder only promotions that make it well worth having if you fly US a lot, including double status mile promotions applicable to cardholders only.

Assuming you do that, I'd then suggest you dump the Chase Continental card (unless you really like it) and get a Starwood AMEX card.

Personally, I'd suggest a third card too, the Diners Club, with points good on any airline and a minimum of 60 days to pay the bill, it's great for using the float.

The life of the airline, of course

I vote for the starwood AMEX. I think I have only stayed at a 4 points in the entire time I have had this card. I think the low fee (free was better of course)is well spent when you consider the flexibility and the 5K bonus. I would say I have funded my AA account mostly with this card - getting miles by buying savings bonds among other things. I also have citibank AA MC's but I do not pay the fee because I have a citigold account at citibank so that is a perk for their $95 fee (which was reduced from $125). I also get a free diner's club which I use only for car rentals. So I use my AMEX first. If a place does not take AMEX I use my citibank. The citibank card came in handy with c2it before they started charging fees, and now to load the citicashcards offerred through citibank. The loads count as purchases, MC and VIsa only accepted and money can be withdrawn at a citibank ATM at no fee. So, I would vote for the AMEX, and citibank AA card, and drop your Continental card. That way you could build your AA card, and transfer to CO from AMEX if you need to top off.

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Ms.DtG

If you accumulate 1MM AA miles (through flights, cc's, or any other means) over any period of time you become Gold for life. For 2MM you become Platinum.