Question
Starwood AMEX: 1 point per dollar spent. You need 7000 point for one night stay at a Sharenton hotel in NYC Manhattan, which normally cost over $200 per night, and there is no capacity control. Hotels are 4-5 stars.
MBNA Visa: 1 point per dollar spent. You need 7500 point for one night stay at a Ramada hotel in NYC Manhattan, which normally cost less than $120 per night. Capacity controled. Hotels are < 3 stars.
MBNA Visa = bad choice :td:
Answer
The proprietary points programs usually are a bad choice, lots of threads on this in MilesBuzz.
I laugh at the TV commercial for CapitalOne, how their free flights start at 7000 miles. But that's only for the bare bones cheapest of tickets... completely missing the value proposition of mileage programs... and you don't have partner earning opportunities either.