I got the Capital One Venture card this year and started putting everything I can on it (paying off weekly) to rack up points. Discovered quickly there's some things you can't put on it, like your mortgage payment (if everyone else knew that, well guess I'm just stoopidt), and there's an increasing number of places that charge you 2-4% extra for using your card that negates whatever points you'd earn. I know several folks who own their own businesses and put 50K+ a month on these things and are always jetting off for free vacations, or folks who travel a lot for business and can use the miles for personal trips. But for regular Joes it's getting harder to get the same perks.