American Express - Starwood Preferred Guest Review

Because I travel a lot for business, I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I am a frequent-flier as much as possible.  I didn't want to get stuck with an credit card that limits me to just one specific airline (and each of the major players seems to have their own nowadays), since I fly on different airlines (depending on the city-pair for that specific day).  I also wanted to have a credit card that would reward me for hotel stays as well.  The Starwood Preferred Guest card by American Express not only allows you to redeem points for free stays at their quality hotel chains, but this card also allows you to redeem points for flight tickets at most of the commericial airlines competing today!  You can do this two ways:  either redeem them directly for tickets (and avoid the pain of finagling a frequent flyer award from the airlines themselves), or you can redeem Starpoints (1 earned per dollar spent) that would convert to frequent-flier miles with most of the commercial airlines today.  More often than not, these Starpoints convert on a 1:1 basis with the popular frequent flyer award programs, and the Starwood program would give you a 5,000 point bonus should you choose to convert 20,000 Starpoints to frequent flier miles.  I haven't found another card that is as versatile as the SPG AMEX card when it comes to airline frequent flier programs combined with an existing hotel rewards program.  Of course, there is a $45 annual fee after the first year, but for me it's a small price to pay for the versatility it presents frequent-fliers like me.  If you're also a member of the Starwood Preferred Guest program as well (like I am), it's a no brainer to have this card.