Not to detract from the ongoing discussion or my original questions, but let me ask another: I am flying Turkish Airlines this December and the total miles of all legs including stopovers is just over 15,000 miles. I don't know if the conversion from trip miles to FF miles is the same but I recall them asking on the form about a couple of American FF programs that I think I can get miles on instead of Turkish, I will find out which they are. I have 2 more roundtrip domestic flights to book this year.
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US based FF programs are, generally speaking, the most generous. US, CO/UA are the 2 American programs that you can credit your Turkish Airlines flight to. Careful though. Depending on the fare bucket, you might not get 1:1 credit.
Originally Posted by
fikio
As far as I can tell to qualify for various elite statuses, all the travel has to occur in 1 calendar year. Is there any way I can make something of these miles I will be accruing? I think this is the goal, right, I want to try to get some kind of elite status in a FF program?
US based carriers are on a 1 JAN-31 DEC qualifying year. One goal is to have status. The other is to have enough miles to get seats in a premium cabin. You might use the miles for a free ticket in F/J, or use them to upgrade. If you travel in a premium cabin, you get many of the benefits of status, such as priority check-in lines, lounges on certain flights, priority baggage handling. Of course award tix don't earn miles.