MilesBuzz! - New travel job, which hotels and airlines to use

I am (most probably) going to take a new job that will require 80% travel within the USA. Most of the time, I will fly out on Mondays and return on Thursdays.

I live in CT. My closest airports are HPN, BDL and LGA with JFK and EWR not too far. In fact all three airports are almost at the same driving distance from me. I think I'd prefer to use BDL since the drive and parking situation seems to be the easiest there for my arrival/departure timings (leaving early on Monday and arrive Late on Thursday).

It is not 100% certain yet, however I will most probably be flying out to DEN if I take up this job. It's a consulting job, so every 6 monthes to 1 year my destination is likely to change.

Currently, all vacations and trips cost me money and if possible, I'd like to make them free using the travel rewards. These are (in the order of priority/preference)
1. Yearly family vacation, usually within the USA.
2. Family trip to India, usually once every couple of years.
3. Relatives from India visiting me, usually a couple of round trips every year.

At this point, I dont care much for travelling first class and all that. However, I have been told by experienced travellers that I will need to start caring for them in order to remain functional and sane once I start travelling a lot.

Any thoughts on which airline and hotel programs I should try to use? Currently I just have an AAdvantage account with 275k miles in it from the credit card bonuses. I have a few other inactive accounts (Continental, USAirways etc) - but I never really used them.

UA would make a lot of sense since Denver is one of their hubs and BDL isn't a hub or even focus airport for anyone. However, the merger mess and its disruption of your business travel might mean that it would be better to avoid UA for a while.

Since you already have an investment with AA, you could initially stick with them if their BDL-DEN schedules are reasonable for your business needs and if there are decent partner flights to India. If/when the AA bankruptcy impacts passengers or they begin a merger with US, you can re-evaluate the choice.

It may not be the popular vote around here but I think you should at least consider Southwest. Not only do they have nonstops from DEN-BDL, but no change fees for when you're stuck in DEN a little later on the job on a Thursday than you expected, free bags, and will definitely help with your domestic family vacations.

It won't help with the India travel clearly, but pair the Southwest travel with something like a Chase Sapphire Preferred, charge the business travel and dining to that, and you've got yourself a solid foundation.

It may not be the popular vote around here but I think you should at least consider Southwest. Not only do they have nonstops from DEN-BDL, but no change fees for when you're stuck in DEN a little later on the job on a Thursday than you expected, free bags, and will definitely help with your domestic family vacations.

It won't help with the India travel clearly, but pair the Southwest travel with something like a Chase Sapphire Preferred, charge the business travel and dining to that, and you've got yourself a solid foundation.

Solid advice. It might be worth it to do a combination of SW/UA, with the CSP card earning the 2x on travel, able to transfer to either of those programs.

As for hotels, unless your company has a preference, the typical favorite in terms of award values is Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) through AMEX. Of course, if there aren't any SPG properties near where you're staying, or you have a preference of Hyatt/Marriott/Hilton etc, then go with what you personally value most.

You need to investigate schedules and fares to where you will be traveling to, and your employer's policies on flights. Can you take your preferred airline if the fare on another is $100 less? $20 less? $1 less?

I wouldn't worry about using or not using AA. It's not a bad thing to have miles on more than one airline; sometimes you can get awards on one airline but not another.

It is a good idea to concentrate travel on one carrier and achieve elite status. Elite status will get you upgrades and bonus miles. If you took a 4000-mile round trip every week, that would get you the top elite status. Airline upgrade policies vary, I think on DL US and UA they are unlimited space-available, I think on AA there are limits. You might want to project your likely trave and look at the qualification criteria and perks of each elite status. Other things you may get are free same-day flight changes and the ability to book and cancel award flights with no penalty or fee.

Some airlines will let you do an "elite challenge." Since the year is half-gone, you might not make the top status, but they will sometimes let you do a "challenge" where you fly a certain amount in 90 days and get a certain status. I don't know details, but it might let you make gold rather than silver, or platinum rather than gold, for next year.

Think also about the value of your time. Would you prefer a nonstop, or a connecting flight that will give you more miles and segments toward elite status?

When I lived in Hartford, I actually flew Delta all the time, they are an option but it can be very hard to redeem awards on them.

Agree UA makes the most sense from an airport perspective - it's got a EWR and Denver hub, and *A will help with the international flights hitting India.

Air: Since you will be flying for work, don't stress with taking 1 or 2 stop flights to and fro work. Plus if you are married and have kids, you (and they) will appreciate you being home more. If single, go crazy on stops. Do not limit to one airline.

Credit Card: If your company allows you to use your CC for expenses, use some airline card. Try to churn CC every 4-6 months. I do it every 3-4 months. The travel expense takes care of the minimum spend and if you decide to make a CC regular, you can do it too and when you churn, u can set aside your regular card.

Car rental: Look for car rental miles. Try to rent from one so you can get elite status while earning Air Miles and free car rental days.

Hotel: Pick 2 chains and hotel hop to achieve status. I try to get status on one first so I can enjoy the status.

Hope this helps.

As others have mentioned UA would be a good choice out of EWR for you and if LGA is closer then DL might have nonstop flights to DEN out of LGA. They are building up LGA. I dont think AA will have nonstop to DEN at this point. If you are travelling every week, nonstop flights more than first class upgrades will keep you sane :)

UA offers most choices to go back and forth to India and DL comes second. Even though its slightly difficult to redeem DL miles, its not impossible with some flexibility. Good luck.

I just have an AAdvantage account with 275k miles in it from the credit card bonuses.

AA @ BDL flies via ORD which can be fun in it's own way and all RJ, BDL-DFW is on 737-800s. There was a thread in the AA forum that raised a concern (rumor) that BDL may be going off AA mainline, so that airport / airline combo may not be the same in the near future than it is now.

AA and UA both connect DEN via a stop (or more). As pointed out up thread, only Southwest (WN) has had direct options out of BDL and it's going to be the 737 option, no First Class.

UA flights connect out of BDL via EWR (and others). On any given day, this might give you options as you can pick either airport, but I'd guess that if you fly BDL-EWR-DEN or EWR-DEN, that the latter segment will be the same flight. Every time I've looked (not often) BDL-EWR is a turboprop A/C. Smaller bird, smaller OH bins, probably no FC. But it gets you the better parking and another pair of segments.

AA (and UA) recently scored well in in a recent FT/BT poll for FF redemption. This may matter a lot -- a bucket of miles is useless if you can't use them. AA is One World (OW) and UA is Star Alliance (*A) -- you may want to check which OW/*A carriers service India besides AA and UA, as you might wind up on their metal. I don't think WN has international partners, so this may also effect your decision if you are looking to redeem international awards.

HVN (New Haven,CT) has service to PHL on US Express but can be booked on UA. Which also brings up that a lot of flights that can be booked on UA are US metal, This may make getting an get a schedule that suits you easier. (I haven't flown HVN, but it's at least another option to consider, and if you're close to the airports you mentioned, you're probably close to HVN too.)

Thanks everybody for all the suggestions and thoughts. I really apreciate the detailed answers and please keep them coming.

>> HVN (New Haven,CT) has service to PHL on US Express but can be booked on UA. Which also brings up that a lot of flights that can be booked on UA are US metal, This may make getting an get a schedule that suits you easier. (I haven't flown HVN, but it's at least another option to consider, and if you're close to the airports you mentioned, you're probably close to HVN too.)

Yes - HVN is, in fact, the closest to me. However, I couldn't find a good schedule to suit me from HVN. I need to reach DEN on monday before noon and would be able to fly out on/after 5:00 on Thursday. I will likely have to fly out on Sunday and return on Friday morning in case I am going to use HVN. I dont want to have to spend two extra nights outside home, and would rather drive an extra 50/60 miles. Admittedly I'mva newbie and any help/pointers correcting me would be most welcome.

How do I find the on time and cancellation performance of a specific flight? I dont want to get stuck in the airport on a Thursday night.

It seems LGA has some United nonstop flights to DEN. I am thinking I may also try those. LGA is exactly the same distance as BDL for me. I just hate driving to NYC and hence was trying to avoid it. I guess I will have to do it if the flight schedule is better.

Also, why is southwest not a popular option here in FT? Is it because of the lack of the first class? Or are there other factors to it as well?

Another newbie question - how do you guys manage the logistics of the hotel hopping when you do it?

Do you check out in the morning when you go to work and check in at the new place when you return from work for the day? It seems to me that hauling the luggage for an entire day would be an inconvenience. If that's the only way to do it - I'd do it. But any better mechanism to manage the logistics would be great.

Another newbie question - how do you guys manage the logistics of the hotel hopping when you do it?

Do you check out in the morning when you go to work and check in at the new place when you return from work for the day? It seems to me that hauling the luggage for an entire day would be an inconvenience. If that's the only way to do it - I'd do it. But any better mechanism to manage the logistics would be great.

I hotel-hop like a madman when I take my son to Disneyworld. You pretty much need a rental car or you'll be schlepping a lot. Use the trunk as your "suitcase" and only take into the hotel what you need for the night and the next morning. Take your laundry and tie it up each morning in a plastic bag to keep it separate from your clean clothes and toss it deep in the trunk. On a business trip, where you have to have nicer clothes, it would be more of a pain, but doable, I think.

One drawback to hopping: if you are sick when you wake up, you can't conveniently sleep until the afternoon to recover, nor can you check in reliably at your new hotel. Learned that one the hard way with my son.

To the OP: it seems to me that you are going to find flying non-stops to be greatly superior to having to change planes all the time. With connections your aggravation level goes up, the odds of getting stranded go way up, your luggage will get lost/late more often, you lose several hours a week, etc.

Southwest has all 737s. Very nice. Also as mentioned above, you could save a ton on change fees with them, should that matter to you.

Amex Gold Business gives 3x MR points for airfare. That might be your best bet for that part. Probably choose whatever CC is affiliated with your hotel chain (Hilton, Amex, etc.), with Chase Sapphire (2x UR points for "travel," widely interpreted) to pick up the other expeditures.

I would consider getting the chase sapphire credit card as it can transfer points to both UA and Southwest which will give you options for Denver travel. Hyatt and Marriott are options as well for your hotel stays .

Good luck

It seems LGA has some United nonstop flights to DEN. I am thinking I may also try those. LGA is exactly the same distance as BDL for me. I just hate driving to NYC and hence was trying to avoid it. I guess I will have to do it if the flight schedule is better.


Why do you hate driving to NYC? Is it the traffic? Because if you leave DEN at 5:00 you are not going to have any traffic back to CT. And if you are willing to take early monday morning flights, say be at LGA by 7:00 or so, I don't think you should have any traffic either (though I'll check google maps tomorrow morning after my daily NYC-CT drive to see how traffic looks on the other way).

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I just hate driving to NYC and hence was trying to avoid it. I guess I will have to do it if the flight schedule is better.
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Find out if your company allows you to use town car service. I know lot of folks that use this service to LGA from your neck of woods. You can happily sleep in the car on the way to the airport/home.