Excuse me in advance for being a bit long-winded but I want to try and explain myself and see if I can get some good advice for my particular situation.
In the early 90's I used to fly a lot, and loved it. I was living in NYC and flew with my then BF mostly to Europe and S. Korea. We always stayed in Intercontinentals and we always flew First and a few times were upgraded (???) to the Concorde. I didn't even realize how spoiled I was, LOL but flying back then was pleasurable and relaxing and I actually looked forward to not only the destination but the travel part of travel.
Fast forward a few years, I get married then divorced. Now I find myself in a 9-5 M-F boring job. When I do travel, I might get a 4* nice hotel thru priceline, but First Class is waaaaay out of my budget now. Airline travel has become a bore and is in no way relaxing or fun.
Last year I had a friend who invited me on a trip to South America with her. She had never traveled out of the country before, spoke no Spanish (I do) and was terrified to go alone but she really wanted to go to Peru so she asked me to go with her and insisted on taking care of all travel expenses. Her father had left her a fairly large inheritance and she decided to do the trip of her dreams. So, she purchased us First Class tickets on American.
I had forgotten what a pleasure the actual travel part of travel can actually be. We made use of the easy check in, the Admirals Club, and enjoyed the quality, personal service in the cabin by a flight attendant who had only a few mostly relaxed, happy people to look after instead of a hundred mostly grumpy, squeezed together like sardines, people to look after. I once again had a wonderful travel experience and remembered how it used to be!
So, I got to thinking about how I could go back to enjoying the travel part of travel again. I honestly used to find such excitement about "going somewhere". Which is what lead me to this website. I am wondering if it is possible to go back to flying better while not busting the budget?
I have been reading up on the different FF programs, Mileage Runs (interesting) and lots more here on the website but now have more questions that I had before I started!!
I will try to describe myself a bit more and anyone wants to throw out if they think that a FF program can benefit me?
RDU is my closest airport.
I have no family so can be flexible with my time and am willing to do so.
I love to research, and the thrill of the chase of good fares seem quite fun. I have a trip to Central America this coming up week where I watched fares hover around $600-$700 for weeks and weeks and when I saw it dip below $500 bought that instant. I got it at just the right time as it went back up hasn't dropped since. I get a thrill out of that for some crazy reason....
I wouldn't mind putting in the time/money to get status on an airline if it meant I would get consistent upgrades the next year. But I don't want to put in the time/money just to spend it and still end up crammed in coach. This is a question I am not sure has been answered yet, if you get top tier status, can you buy bargain basement fares but still get free upgrades? Or do you need to buy full-fare coach to get upgraded with some regularity?
Which airline should I go with? American goes to a lot of the Central/S. American destinations I like, but seems to offer no low fares domestically out of RDU. Most of the domestic flights I have taken have all been on USAir, United, or Delta.
Or, should I simply abandon this whole crazy idea and just shell out the $$ every now and then when I want to fly with a little more luxury?
One last question: What is this with buying miles? I see on many of the FF sights that you can buy miles? Lots and Lots of miles, for perhaps even cheaper than flying them? What is the catch?? I know I must be missing something?