If you never fly American Airlines or its Oneworld alliance partners, or if your hometown airport is a
hub for a different airline, then the above card wouldn't be a good choice for you since the rewards you're earning can only be used to book on American or a partner airline (Japan Airlines, for example).
FlyerTalk has individual
threads for different airlines with specific breakdowns of the different types of purchases that were successful and it usually provides a date that they were last successful.
Which program is best for you will depend on a lot of factors, such as your desired airfare class, desired destination, proximity to certain airports, and your
affinity for different airlines.
I like that Chase has additional options for earning miles
for for its different airline partners, such Southwest, United and British Airways with its co-branded cards (all of which can be used for good domestic / Caribbean / Mexico flights).
As opposed to the Starwood rewards program, which for the most part is a 1:1 redemption, the Marriott program has a different
rate for different airlines.
Third, the earning rates form the same retailers are often different
for different airlines.