I have a back up card that I use when Amex isn't accepted, but I don't find it to be much of the problem in the states. Abroad is entirely different of course, but I was actually very surprised how many places in Namibia took Amex on my recent trip.

Looking forward to your Seychelles comments.

Flying SAA can earn you Star Alliance miles. United and USAir are the U.S. domestic *A members.

You could get a United Mileage Plus Visa and earn 21,000 miles as a sign up bonus. There is a fee. USAir also has a cc offer with bonus miles.

You can book a BOS-JNB trip at united dot com. Doing so with your MP Visa would have some small benefit to your MP miles and status balances depending on which version of the visa you got.

United would send you via a couple of routes. BOS-FRA-JNB, with BOS-FRA on Lufthansa and FRA-JNB on SAA or Lufthansa. Or BOS-IAD-JNB, first on United and then SAA.

Good tip mrw I'll take a look.

Patty, I can't seem to top my report for you. Don't know if it's because it's so old.
I'm involved in a couple big projects now but will surface to give you some seychelle scoop, if possible. I was on a catamaran so I can only tell you about the islands and surrounds rather than restuarants etc.