Canarsie

Lately, I have been finding myself racing to keep accounts from expiring while still attempting to maintain status in the airline and hotel programs that I most frequently accumulate miles and points.

I joined many of the frequent traveler programs over the years due to a combination of factors: company policy, special offers, where I was based, etc.

I am now making an active attempt to use up the miles and points in the most efficient manner possible from the frequent traveler programs of the airlines and hotels I rarely use anymore.

cordelli

Can you join too many - I don't think so, you should join any that youhave a chance to get points on. I belong to one that I haven't flown in probably ten years, but get points for everytime I go to the supermarket. Someday I'll have enough for a trip, most likley it will end up buying a magazine or being a donation.

But there isn't any effort on my part, I just present my discount card when checking out and the miles show up.

If there was work involved in it (it's the store I shop at all the time anyways) that would be a different story.

No, you can not belong to too many, but the ones you can't get miles into easily aren't worth keeping alive.

USCGamecock

I feel you should have 1 primary and 1 secondary account. Of course, use any other program to gather points/miles if they don't fall in that category; but I believe it is better and more rewarding for one to follow this procedure.

whirledtraveler

No. But it is possible to use too many of them.

jmscsc

I'm in the midst of closing accounts because I do think it's possible to belong to too many. I have a bunch of accounts on airlines that I haven't flown in years and don't intend on flying. Therefore, I'm keeping open only the accounts on the "Big Three" (DL, UA, and AA) and closing the rest. Today you can claim CO, NW, and AL miles in the "Big Three" anyway.

rkkwan

I have a FF card for Canadian, which I have never flown, and of course will never fly. I believe I signed up because that was the only way some years ago to even check for fares and seats on their website.

That was stupid, and no wonder a stupid airline went "bye-bye".

Meanwhile, signing up for hotel programs is a good idea, even if you never stay at that chain ever. Because as a member, you can often get upgrades to their "frequent-stayer" floor with complimentary stuff, and special check-in lines. No cost, except for signing up. Good deal.

[This message has been edited by rkkwan (edited Feb 29, 2004).]

free101girl

I can't see ANY advantage to closing an existing account in a frequent traveler program, even if you're not actively using that program currently.

About-to-expire airline miles and hotel points aren't really a problem. Almost all airline programs will allow you to trade as few as 500 miles for free magazine subscriptions, and even if you don't need or want any more magazines, you probably know someone who does (older relative, library, doctor's office). Or donate some miles to Operation Hero Miles (http://www.heromiles.org/).

Alternatively, just do a car rental or iDine to create some activity on your hotel or airline frequent traveler account. Doing something like this every 3 years in order to keep your frequent flyer account active just isn't that taxing. (Admittedly, most hotel chains require activity once a year, which requires a bit more effort.)

I can't see walking away from any point balance if you can avoid it. What if your travel habits change and you are in a position to accrue more miles/points into that account unexpectedly? What if that program offers some stellar deal that fits your plans perfectly? If you keep that balance active, you'll have something to build on.

I do almost all of my flying on AA and I use a Delta Amex, so if I need major miles for a trip or upgrade, I have them available. But I also have loads of accounts with just a few thousand miles in each. I get UA miles for shopping at my local Vons supermarket, for instance, but they only amount to 5000 or 6000 miles a year. Why should I throw those away? I use them for magazine subscriptions... haven't paid for a magazine in years!

Even if your account balance is at zero and you have no immediate plans to use that airline or hotel chain again... what's the point of closing the account? It costs you nothing to keep it open, and it might come in handy sometime.

OTOH, I can't see any point in opening an account if you have no immediate plans to use it. But does anyone really do that?

vasantn

I think it is entirely possible to belong to too many programs. I find it a real nuisance to keep getting statements from Qantas and Lan Chile, for example, neither of which I have ever flown. But I'm too lazy to cancel or close the accounts. I have 8,000 orphan miles on BA that I probably will never use. So one of these days I'm going to write some letters and close these accounts.

------------------
Vasant

fly co to see the yanks

no

Marathon Man

seems that sometimes it is a pain in the ars to both maintain and redeem on many of them. I am actually in the process of trying to burn most of mine up and be done with them! I have been doing this for some time now and here is why:

you have say, 22k in one program... use idine or some promo to get it to award level and then fly and get rid of it.

you have say, 3k in one program, you can get magazines with it for your friends, etc.

you hate the airline (once it was good but not anymore) or you cannot use it like you used to, so now you should use up those awards as well or give them to friends who hook you up elsewhere. Went skiing once and i had the miles but the other guys bought all ski passes.

I think right now with JetBlue and SW, you can get all over the place on better airlines with better service and not have all the crap and restrictions that the majors are fumbling around with. Once I am done buring them all up, there are only a couple airlines I will still elect to fly. Those two may become my main ones, but I will have to use UAL to get overseas and having status on it helps, and is about the only other reason I would hold onto an account.

I think mileage programs are going by the wayside and they are getting too intense. Oh sure, we love all the tips, tricks, ways and means, and I am the first to jump in and discuss them, but sometimes it takes too much time to maintain, track down or call CS about missing credits, and make worth of some of the promos and junk out there that leads to nothing.

I will burn up my miles and be done one day. I have zero on a few airlines and am done with them now too. I fly their partners still, but those were the better of the partnership so I like them still.

I know one thing: You cannot "close" an account. I once wrote Delta to do this and they did not close it. I wrote again and called and it is still open, with zero miles in it. I had used them all up to get magazines or something.

I hope to zero out all but two of the major airlines and do less to get more. I will also fly more on SW and jetblue where I could care less about miles.

MM

pinniped

I don't think it's possible to have too many open accounts. Use Miletracker or something similar to keep tabs on them. Use a simple iDine post if you need to keep them alive.

I still have ample balances to last a couple of years in US, DL, and NW.

As for active accumulation, I now focus everything on AA and Starwood. AA by itself gives me pretty good coverage and availability for awards around the globe, but Starwood is there as a backup with a long list of transfer partners if I need to fortify another account to get to a *A or SkyTeam destination.

I also participate in the niche programs like WN and YX, but I never seen to earn much because I don't really fortify those accounts with partner miles or frequent flights.

Family flyer

I interpreted the topic question a little differently than others have. You don't need to close accounts, but there's a huge advantage to consolidating accounts.

For example, you have 24K in an account that is not your primary airline. You slowly top it off with iDine miles and then if you have an emergency and need an immediate ticket, you can use this free ticket instead of paying for it.

I would call this "closing" an account, but I wouldn't say that I "walked away" from the miles. I just used an orphan airline before my main airline.

I know many FTers consolidate accounts. A good example is moving Continental's OnePass miles to Hilton. People aren't losing their CO miles - they're just moving them to have a better chance of an award.

BlondeBomber

We have seen some promos in the past where it was important to have your ff program already registered so you could take advantage of some "short-term" outrageously profitable (for us) promos. I join as many as I come across as opportunities permit but I still stay faithful to a couple of airline programs and a couple of hotel programs, not all of them. I still find myself flying odd routes to odd places so pick up miles there. A recent example was on South African. I joined and with signing bonus and first couple of flights and a couple of Hilton stays, I had 5000 miles which I promptly converted to 10000 HHonors points

rbAA

Some time ago, I transferred small balances from Delta, America West, Continental and Alaska to consolidate, even at a loss, the mileage into as few plans as possible. Had I thought about these plans before, at the time I was earning in them, I should have directed the miles/points to other plans. I do see some advantage to maintaining status in a couple of alliances, in case you need to use a carrier in that alliance. Plus, it can mean lounge access when you run into those delays or problems. Keeping AA EXP (or PLT,) and LH SEN (or even UA 1P,) can usually get you whatever access, UPG etc, you may be able to capture.

The question is better put, how many plans do you have the time to keep up on? Flyer Talk certainly helps to bring out the latest features and deals. It still takes your time to take advantage of the information.

Stefan Daystrom

Well, you can belong to too many UNUSABLE or REDUNDANT programs. If you're COMPLETELY unfocused and you're earning 1/100th of the minimum reward every year in a half dozen different programs, what's the point of that if you'll NEVER top off enough to use any of the stuff you're earning?

But I am finding it practical with my patterns to participate (tho much more often through partners than actual flying) in a half dozen airline programs, expecting to accumulate something quite usable in each within two or three years, and four different hotel programs (tho in three of them I either earn miles directly or convert points to miles, and in the fourth I earn both miles and points and save points for exotic awards).

In the case of several of the international airlines I accumulate into, they go to parts of the world the others don't (or don't go to well), and that's why I'm accumulating in more than one. Similarly, a couple of my domestic-only airlines fill in each others' destination holes, and that's why I have more than one domestic-only FF program.

But I also know the feeling of "too many". I have one or two hotel programs which I've totally abandoned, even with some points left, because it's not worth the effort to top off to the next reward considering the low value of such a reward.

Similarly, if work ever sent me on an airline that's not among my choices, I'd do my best to steer the miles toward a partner airline I already collect with, rather than starting up yet another airline. (I have chosen airlines which overlap relatively little in partnerships, so the remaining major airlines are likely to be partnered with one of the airlines I do collect with.)