Free! Free at last!

See the picture? It's an amazing symbol of two huge changes in my life. First, I finally decided to put away the needle that frequent-flier miles have represented for me for the past, what?, 15 years? Second, because I swore off the United Mileage Plus Program, I could finally give the heave-ho to Chase credit cards! These two outcomes rank right up there with when I turned off DirecTV (after they shafted TiVo) and T-Mobile (after I got a Verizon EV-DO and was no longer tethered to Starbucks to get my wireless data. In fact, I've been enjoying coffee much more since I started going to Peets and, in Santa Fe, Holy Spirit Espresso!)

United Mileage Plus only has one credit card supplier and that supplier is Chase. It used to be some regional bank in Chicago, but that got bought by XYZ which got bought by ABC which got by Chase. I've had so many late charges from Chase, despite having a 30-day grace period; I've had my card turned off for shopping too much so many times; I've had such bad treatment from Chase customer service employees (from time to time), that I am just thrilled to cut up the card.

But I couldn't do that until I decided that I would forgo the miles that I got from this credit card. That was the lock that kept me tied to a company I really despised. I'm still mostly stuck with United Airlines since it flies more than 50% of the flights out of SFO. (Small changes lead to big ones, though: JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America all started new, low-cost service out of SFO this year, giving us San Franciscans a whole lot more choice than we did just a few years ago. The only problem is they all fly to mostly the same places!) But at least now I fly on United when I want to (or don't have a choice) and not because I want to rack up free miles.

By cutting up my United Airlines Mileage Plus Visa card, I've now committed to not getting free miles for using my credit card. Here's the trick to consumer freedom: Pay money for service! My ATM card from First Republic (which I'm still liking even though Merrill Lynch bought the bank earlier this year) is free with my checking account and serves as my Visa card when I need it. But I'm now paying $400 a year for an platinum American Express card. I get concierge service, which is actually useful, and I am a much happier person, which is more than useful.

I love the free enterprise system!