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Moving Back to the US. What to do with all these miles?

Moving Back to the US. What to do with all these miles?

Old Oct 4, 2016, 10:06 pm
  #1  
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Moving Back to the US. What to do with all these miles?

Hi All,

I've been overseas for the past 8 years and have since acquired lots of different airline miles based on where I've lived. In summary I have the following:

Virgin Atlantic - 15,518
United Mileageplus - 6,895
Virgin Velocity - 56,252
Qantas - 9,012
BA Avios - 1,332
Delta Skymiles - 150 + (Soon miles from a RT Trip from SYD to JFK)

Basically its a mess.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I should do in terms of consolidating as much as I can? Is it even possible? I am taking a RT flight from SYD to JFK in a few days and will be using my SkyMiles program instead of the Velocity one. I think that's a good call, right? (T Class Ticket). Otherwise I could put my Virgin Velocity but I get .5 miles per mile.

I will be moving back to the USA in 2 months time and figured It would be best to start building up a frequent flyer program in the states. Are skymiles considered the best program? Is there another airline/partner I should look into? I will likely be making ~4 international trips a year and 6-10 domestic.

Also I have had the ThankYou rewards by Citi since it came out. As everyone knows the program doesn't seem to be as good as it used to be. Whats the latest and greatest these days in terms of FF points with Credit Cards? I haven't looked into it in years so I am out of the CC game.

Any tips would be great!
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Old Oct 4, 2016, 10:48 pm
  #2  
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Darren870 Welcome to FT ^ And goodbye from SYD?

Originally Posted by Darren870
I've been overseas for the past 8 years and have since acquired lots of different airline miles based on where I've lived. In summary I have the following:
Virgin Atlantic - 15,518
United Mileageplus - 6,895
Virgin Velocity - 56,252
Qantas - 9,012
BA Avios - 1,332
Delta Skymiles - 150 + (Soon miles from a RT Trip from SYD to JFK)

Basically its a mess.
A mess is being polite
You have a big overlap
QF & BA are oneworld partners, as is AA.
Virgin Aust is a partner of Virgin Atlantic & Delta
Most of the ff mile balances are low. Except for VAust, which is a bit of an orphan not being in major alliance

Effectively you cannot move ff miles from one ffp to another ffp. (As is the way with ffp's there are a few specific very limited expectations)

Expiry will be your problem. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html
Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You never get enough ff miles/points to be of use before they expire. FFP’s are for the long term.

You need a plan to use before they expire or add to so they can be used
With ~nothing in DL consider putting your upcoming flights to VA and then burn/use these

Awards assistance tools
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can 2 or more awards. Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds -->http://www.awardace.com/
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/

In the USA DL ffp ranks below AA & UA to most.
Alaska AS is good ffp, as now it the only USA ffp not revenue based. But not revenue based for how long? AS is partner of AA, DL, QF, BA, CX, EK and others

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same. http://wheretocredit.com/

But everyone has opinions and no one is right or wrong. Depends on your flying patterns and ffp objectives
Look here:-http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Oct 4, 2016 at 11:09 pm
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Old Oct 4, 2016, 11:21 pm
  #3  
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Thanks mate! I am actually in Melbs and looking forward to my next adventure! AUS has been great to me, thats for sure!

Yea. Most of these are from being in the UK and AUS for a while. I've burned through my BA points with internal flights in AUS, so happy to let that expire.

If there is nothing I can really do with the QF or Virgin Atlantic points I can use them for a RT ticket to Syd. When I go up in a few weeks. I suppose that will burn 90% of those.

Then that leaves my United Points and Virgin Velocity. Since I am making a trip to the US on Sunday with Delta I was really wondering what FF program to use. I had my Velocity in there, but just switched it to Delta. My thought was I could start building up a program in the US. Though if Delta isn't ranked that high I rather use a strategic one to not be in this mess anymore.

Do you think its worth singing up for AS then and putting the points there?

I guess all I really use FFP is for flying. Since being in AUS for the past three years I have really only used my Qantas, Virgin and BA points for flying internal within AUS. I would like to do the same in the states as well as international I suppose.

One thing is that I never liked UA or AA compared to Delta in terms of experience. Now its been forever really since I've flown AA. And UA still hasn't changed. I'll see how Delta is soon but UA and AA were always unprofessional on the international flights.

Thanks for the links! I'll check them out when I get home.

Edit:
Its worth noting I can transfer all those Velocity points to Kris Flyer Points. Which would then put in me in the Star Alliance network. What are your thoughts on that then? I think that might be a good idea as I'll be making trips from FL<->NY and likely be using Jet Blue.

Last edited by Darren870; Oct 4, 2016 at 11:45 pm
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Old Oct 5, 2016, 12:40 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by Darren870
..If there is nothing I can really do with the QF or Virgin Atlantic points I can use them for a RT ticket to Syd. When I go up in a few weeks. I suppose that will burn 90% of those...
You can use QF points in the USA on award flights with AA or AS (both QF ffp partners). What flight you will get with 9000 points is another matter.

Virgin Atlantic - 15,518 - no idea on how to get value. Have a look at who the partners are. Partners here http://www.wheretocredit.com/virgin-atlantic Usually freq flyer partners are reciprocal. Just noticed VS & DL are ff partners.
Also Virgin America VX is being taken over by Alaska, so the Virgin Atlantic VS ff partner may or may not stay

As for DL or AS or ?? in the future depends on where to in USA you fly, by which airline and what you want from a ffp. Hopefully some others will give an opinion.
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Old Oct 5, 2016, 9:10 am
  #5  
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Which FFP IMO should depend on where you'll be and therefore which airline will serve you best. E.g. SEA is great for Alaska, BDL or TPA perhaps not as much. Look at it in the long view.

Though DL has the "SkyPesos" reputation, I think award availability has changed among the "big three" to the extent it really doesn't vary too much in terms of availability. It's more about partners and diligence now.

Earning status is based on minimum spend on all big three now, so there's no major advantage (though DL and UA both waive some ticket spend for credit card spend, and AA doesn't yet - speculation is this has stalled as AA negotiates with both Citi and Barclaycard).

As to flying, many would say DL is most consistent in service, AA has deteriorated with being taken over by HP dba US and UA seems to continue as it has been.

If you're not doing Star, Alaska does allow miles earning on both AA and DL.

And for domestic short and medium haul with a very consistent product and good customer support, there's always WN / Southwest.

Last edited by JDiver; Oct 5, 2016 at 9:16 am
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Old Oct 5, 2016, 5:54 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by JDiver
Which FFP IMO should depend on where you'll be and therefore which airline will serve you best. E.g. SEA is great for Alaska, BDL or TPA perhaps not as much. Look at it in the long view.

Though DL has the "SkyPesos" reputation, I think award availability has changed among the "big three" to the extent it really doesn't vary too much in terms of availability. It's more about partners and diligence now.

Earning status is based on minimum spend on all big three now, so there's no major advantage (though DL and UA both waive some ticket spend for credit card spend, and AA doesn't yet - speculation is this has stalled as AA negotiates with both Citi and Barclaycard).

As to flying, many would say DL is most consistent in service, AA has deteriorated with being taken over by HP dba US and UA seems to continue as it has been.

If you're not doing Star, Alaska does allow miles earning on both AA and DL.

And for domestic short and medium haul with a very consistent product and good customer support, there's always WN / Southwest.
Yea, well I am probably going to be in FL for the next year or so with me going up to NY once a month at the minimum. Because of that I would likely take Jet Blue, or whatever is cheapest.

Now if I convert all my Virgin Velocity points to Kris Flyer I can then be part of the Star Alliance network and earn more Kris Flyer points with that Jetblue flight.

Thoughts on this? Am I off base? Anything I can do with those UA points?

If this is a good idea then I will put my Virgin Velocity FF in for my upcoming trip rather then my Delta Airlines.

----

As for the Virgin Atlantic points. Well I know its 12,500 for Melbs -> SYD. And I have to go up there soon. So that at least burns 83% of the. For the qantas I can use those for Syd -> Melbs and it would burn 95% of them. Then I can just let them expire.
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Old Oct 5, 2016, 7:58 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by Darren870
..Thoughts on this? Am I off base? Anything I can do with those UA points?
<snip>
As for the Virgin Atlantic points. Well I know its 12,500 for Melbs -> SYD. And I have to go up there soon. So that at least burns 83% of the. For the Qantas I can use those for Syd -> Melbs and it would burn 95% of them. Then I can just let them expire.
Will your future USA travel be personal or business? Or you own choice?

Burn/use you miles/points or add to them. In USA its not hard to add miles to USA based ffp's with non flying activities. Or car rental/hotels. This can keep miles from expiring (Those that are not hard expiry)
You can use miles/points on the airline ffp' own flights and those of its partners
QF points--> AA or AS award flights in USA
UA miles --> UA award flights in USA
VA points --> DL award flights in USA (but not 100% sure- have not checked)
VS points --> DL & VX Virgin America flights in USA. What happens after VX takeover by AS is unknown. http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/eu/en...end-miles.html.

Awards assistance tools
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can 2 or more awards. Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds -->http://www.awardace.com/
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/
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Old Oct 8, 2016, 8:36 am
  #8  
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These are all the miles you have earned over 8 years? I think you are wasting your time. Just stick with whoever is cheapest.
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Old Oct 8, 2016, 9:28 am
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Originally Posted by CDKing
These are all the miles you have earned over 8 years? I think you are wasting your time. Just stick with whoever is cheapest.
I agree, at least in part. Several of your balances are too low to worry about. If you lose a few hundred or even a few thousand points, it's no great problem. Likewise, such low balances are not worth straining to preserve.

Consider that you'll generally need 25k for the cheapest award seat in the US.... Though some airlines do sell one-ways for half that, and a few airlines (notably BA) do price award seats based on distance flown, allowing you to redeem some short-haul domestic flights for under 10k. Tiny balances are often not worth anything, and unless you have a plan for how to increase them to at least the 25k level they may not be worth the effort to preserve.

As plan travel in the future, try to focus your points earning into fewer points programs. Learn how alliances work and use them to your advantage, crediting flights on alliance partners into one program instead of splitting them across several. Mwenenzi's posts offer good details.
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Old Oct 8, 2016, 1:33 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by Darren870

Virgin Atlantic - 15,518
United Mileageplus - 6,895
Virgin Velocity - 56,252
Qantas - 9,012
BA Avios - 1,332
Delta Skymiles - 150 + (Soon miles from a RT Trip from SYD to JFK)

Basically its a mess.
Hi Darren

As others have said, your miles are spread too thinly over too many programs.

You need to rationalise things, and this means dropping at least half of your current programs.

The obvious one to start with is Qantas. There is no point in having both Qantas and BA. Burning off the 9k points on your upcoming domestic flight is the way to go (if you can). Then just forget about the program.

Which one(s) is/are worth continuing depends on who you are going to fly with in the US. There is too much crossover between Virgin Atlantic, Velocity and Delta. You need to pick one of these three if you are going to be flying Delta.

The only one in which you have anything approaching a useful balance is Velocity. Since Delta is revenue based (points awarded per dollar spent, rather than per mile flown), you may get more miles if you credit cheap Delta flights here. I'm not sure of the expiry rules, though.
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Old Oct 25, 2016, 10:35 pm
  #11  
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Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply. Been traveling...

Yep, I 100% agree some of these are low. The reason they are so low is because I have been using a lot of them to travel in Australia. Eg my BA and Qantas Points.

In summary I think I will do the following:
Burn Virgin Atlantic on my next domestic trip
Burn Qantas on my next domestic trip
Let Delta Expire
Let BA Expire

Convert Virgin Velocity to Kris Flyer. This gets me into Star Alliance. I know Kris Flyer points expire after 3 years, but what is nice is I can get Kris Flyer points with Jet Blue flights which I will probably take a bit between FL and NY.

Does anyone see any downfall to this?

Then I have the United Points. Which I don't know what to do with.

Thanks for the input so far!
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Old Oct 25, 2016, 10:58 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Darren870
Sorry for the late reply. Been traveling... !
But which ffp have you credited those flights to?

Delta points do not expire
Conversion VA to KS is at 135:100. You loose a lot of value. Better to burn directly. 56,252 VA =41,668 KS. Starting a new non USA ffp does not seem sensible
UA (6,895 ) is in Star Alliance. If living in USA earning some UA miles is not that hard
BA (1,332) can be kept alive with 1 eligible AA or AS flight ever 3 years. BA awards can cost 7500 avios

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html Click to open the wiki
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
http://www.awardace.com
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Old Oct 27, 2016, 5:03 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Darren870
Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply. Been traveling...

Yep, I 100% agree some of these are low. The reason they are so low is because I have been using a lot of them to travel in Australia. Eg my BA and Qantas Points.

In summary I think I will do the following:
Burn Virgin Atlantic on my next domestic trip
Burn Qantas on my next domestic trip
Let Delta Expire
Let BA Expire

Convert Virgin Velocity to Kris Flyer. This gets me into Star Alliance. I know Kris Flyer points expire after 3 years, but what is nice is I can get Kris Flyer points with Jet Blue flights which I will probably take a bit between FL and NY.

Does anyone see any downfall to this?

Then I have the United Points. Which I don't know what to do with.

Thanks for the input so far!
Can you convert miles from Virgin Velocity to KrisFlyer? I ask because most airlines I'm aware of do not allow you to transfer or convert miles, though you might be able to use one's miles to acquire an award trip on another airline.
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Old Oct 27, 2016, 7:08 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by JDiver
Can you convert miles from Virgin Velocity to KrisFlyer?
Yes. As this link Conversion ratio is 135:100 in all directions. So 135 become 100. Convert back to the original ffp the 100 become 74.
Is more useful to Virgin Australia velocity ffp members dues to Velocity's limited partners. Those who a are frequent spenders (to VA points) can benefit a little
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