A helpful flight attendant advised us to each get the AA card with 50K miles if you spend $3K in the card in the first 3 months. We each did that over separate 3 month periods and, as advised, cancelled the cards before the annual fee was due. A few months ago, we cashed in for two round trip tickets to Barcelona and 2 more for Oakland CA. Not sure how AA will feel if we do that again!
Everyday, we use a Cap1 Venture card that gives 2 miles/$ spent. All of our monthly expenses that we pay in full are charged to it. You'd be amazed how fast they rack up to useful rewards. Rewards that have no blackout dates and are airline agnostic. We used them for two round trip tickets this past Jan/Feb in Jamaica. Cash them in for cash is the worst of it! I recommend that you Google "Best rewards credit cards." It's crazy to not turn your everyday expenses into rewards.
