I collect miles on NWA because they fly direct from BOS-AMS where we have family. We can plan to earn and save for future trips but this is going to be harder...

1) they are going to turn into Delta and everyone is worried about what will be

2) the kids wont be under 2years old much longer and then I will need to get more tix.

Will have to still go and will have to pay $ at times, I am certain.

I fly AA because if you need to go from BOS to an island, they usually have the flights using $30-35-60k miles. If it's 60k, you are mostly in Business class.

I fly UA if I am going to another big group ski trip once a year to someplace out west. This 25k econ trip is usually availableif booked well in advance and all of us going know of this.

I just have a rule that I NEVER fly thru Chicago in winter (I don't have any business there) EVER.

These trips, and these carriers have served me well enough in terms of how I use them. If the game all changed and say, UA started flying direct to AMS from BOS, I would retool my earnings and savings accordingly.

However, if the rules, fees and restrictions made all of this less desirable an way to hard to obtain, I would probably alter my planning and travel less frequently in all above cases. We could still visit family, but I would be more able to use the "kids are in school so we cant go" excuse.

In short, my planning is based on a combination of needs and internal rules. I generally pick my carreirs based on how I can most easily earn miles on the ones that get me to where I want to go with the best type of connection. Even if I did have to pay for a ticket--and obviously there are some where you would never use miles, I still have my own restrictions on when I would fly and when I would not fly. Types of trips that may include this for me couple with the fact that I HATE prop planes and AA has 'em, so I wont really fly to NY from BOS, for example. I would honestly rather drive. (then you get to stop off here anyway! http://www.reinsdeli.com/)

we shall see.