Originally Posted by
Newgirl12
Hi,
New to the frequent flyer programs... lots of points, no idea how to consolidate them in a way to get what I need.
I am trying to get as many of my points possible onto a single plan to use for an international flight. Between them, I have enough to get me somewhere (assuming I buy a few miles as well) but individually, they are fairly useless for the time being.
I don't know which consolidation process to use to utilize them. I don't need hotels or cars, just the flight. I am lost as far as which to consolidate them to, the best way not to loose too many points, etc.
I want to be as savvy as possible and need to fly ASAP.
Here is what I have:
Alaska Airlines 5,866
One Pass (Continental) 22,867
Velocity (Virgin) 1,491
Miles & More (Star Alliance) 13,684
Total - 43,908 miles
Any helpful ideas are more than welcome!!!
Welcome to FT,
Newgirl!
Unfortunately, most carriers make it fairly difficult to transfer and combine miles across different programs. When flying, it's usually a smart thing to consolidate your earning within each alliance on a single carrier if possible--for example, Lufthansa (LH) Miles & More or United (UA) Mileage Plus for Star Alliance flights, AA for oneworld flights, and DL for SkyTeam flights (or use the Alaska Airlines program across a wide breadth of partners from both oneworld and SkyTeam but with less redemption flexibility and elite status reciprocity). Even better, if possible, try to consolidate your flying to a single alliance or to partners with a single program--for example, make a choice to stick with Star Alliance and only fly a Star Alliance carrier (which CO is transitioning to) unless there's a big price difference or they don't fly somewhere you need to go. This helps to rack up the miles faster. (It also makes it easier to earn elite status.)
However, given that you already have your miles spread out, you might want to take a look at
WebFlyer's Mileage Converter, which can give you some ideas of how you might be able to transfer your miles around. Be aware that you can't transfer out of some programs (e.g. Alaska [AS], LH, or UA), so your options are rather limited, and when transferring miles between programs, you nearly always incur a very bad exchange rate (e.g. your 22,000 CO miles can become a whopping 4,000 LH M&M points by transferring to Amtrak Guest Rewards and then to Hilton HHonors before finally ending up in M&M).
It'd be better to dump all your Star Alliance flying into CO (they join *A effective Oct. 27, 2009) and just ignore your LH account, or to earn a couple thousand more in CO (to get to 25,000), redeem for a coach domestic award, and then concentrate your Star Alliance earning in LH. As for AS, you might consider earning another 8,700 miles and redeeming for a one-way domestic coach award on them, because there's not really any other way to use or move them, unless you want to choose to fly on AS's
varied list of partners and build up that account instead of either CO or LH.
But without some concentrated earning in a single program, I don't think you're going to be able to redeem for an international flight just yet. Best of luck and happy flying!