Tell me about frequent flier miles

[JTG51]

I haven't really flown enough (or at least not paid for the tickets often enough) to think about frequent flier miles before. Now that I'm on the West coast and my family and friends are on the East coast, I think I should look into it.

I just got a credit card application in the mail with some kind of frequent flier miles program. It says I get 15,000 miles for signing up, and 1 mile for every $1 that I charge. That sounds great, but it doesn't say anywhere on the paperwork what each mile is worth. Does it take 1,000,000,000,000 miles to fly from coast to coast?

Can someone tell me what a typical plan is? Are all of the plans similar? Is it worth shopping around?

Thanks.

[tolbiny]

Most plans are similar-
American Airlines for example requires 25,000 miles for a free flight- basically anwhere in the continental US- 35,000 to Hawaii, and min of 50,000 any where international.
Ohh yeah, Don't use american, they suck ass. I earned around 250,000 miles with them over a 2.5 year span, and i have used most of my miles. I have never once been able to book my flight for either the day i wanted to leave or the day i wanted to come back (let alone both) and several times the options for a day or two before or after those dates were unavailable. To put it bluntly i am looking for a new airline.
I hear southwest is good.

[JTG51]

Do most airlines restrict the dates that you can fly when you cash in miles?

[tolbiny]

The vast majority.
Southwest's program gives you 1 free segment for every 3 that you fly (or it might be 6, i can't remember) and they don't seem to have many blackout dates.
The real problem with the major airlines is not just the blackout dates (which are listed and easy to find). They only let a certain number of people fly for free on each flight, so if you don't book at least 3 months ahead of time you will find yourself at the airport at 4am two days after your vacation started.