The AA card gets you more for your dollars spent if you can make it work for you. For example, I can generally fly round trip to St. Maarten for 30,000 miles (sometimes 25,000 miles). With my Capital One card, 30,000 miles gets me $300 towards my plane ticket. However, I can never find a fare that low to St. Maarten (it is generally $500 to $700). Therefore, my miles go considerably farther on my AA card.