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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Dh and I are very HHI, almost exclusively from investment income. We have never paid much attention to credit card reward programs. I primarily use discover and he primarily uses a Costco card. Both pay 1% cash on everything with some things paying more.

We have never been loyal to an airline and typically fly 2-3 times per year, of which one is usually to the Caribbean and one to Europe although we’d like to travel more with the kids and go further. The last flight is usually intra us. We fly economy although in theory of love to fly business. We can afford it but I cannot reason spending that much on a flight for 5 of us. We also aren’t large people so we do in fact fit comfortably in economy.

Typical credit card spending is $15k-$25k per month. We often book flights last minute (30-60 days out) and just go with whomever is direct and out of National unless flying out of bwi or Dulles is significantly cheaper.

Stick with what we are doing or learn the miles games and if so where would I start?[/quote]

If you are spending that much, you are leaving easy money on the table by not taking advantage of the miles game.
Miles are more valuable than cash back. Here is a simple example using your situation.
$15k per month x 12 = $180k
If your card gives you 1% cash back, you collect $1800
If you use a card that gives 1 point per dollar, you get 180k points. The base value is 1 cent per point and could redeem for the same cash back of $1800. 
But here is the real value of using points. Round-trip business class tickets cost between 100k-150k points at most Airlines.
With your 180k points you would be able to buy a round-trip business class ticket (worth more than $5000) and more.

This is a simple example with a card that earns just 1X (most premium cards will give you more than 1X). There is nothing you need to do other than using that card. Is that worth it to you?

We spend about the same as you ($15k on average per month). We use one card: the Chase Sapphire Reserve. It earns 10x on hotels, 5x on flights, 3x on travel and dining, 1x on everything else. We average about 3x across these categories for a total of 540k points per year and we use it to pay our business class tickets plus more for our family of 4.

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