Hello,

My husband and I will be traveling to China in a couple of months for the first time. We received our new credit card (Capital One Venture) last night to get some extra rewards for our travel expenses. Today I went online and started looking at the different air fares. It boiled down to United (ick) which was the least expensive at $1,093 and Korean Air at $1,397. Based on price alone, I decided that we'd pick United, upgrade our seats to Economy Plus, and splurge on our hotels in Hong Kong.

So for the good portion of today, I researched Star Alliance and the best FFP to choose. I ended up going up with Aegean Air, signed up, etc. Then I went to go purchase our air fare on United, upgraded our seats to Economy Plus, and then it spit out a number that was $60 less than Koran Air. At that point, I threw my hands up in the air out of complete frustration. If it's only going to be $60 price difference, then clearly Korean Air is the better choice. Not only is the airline itself better but the flight timings and connections are better -- i.e, United flight would require us to get to the airport (ATL) around 4 am + 4 hr layover in Chicago.

I'm sorry for all of the rambling and ranting. But essentially, I've now dropped the whole Star Alliance bit and moved over to Sky Team. I need help with picking a FFP. I live in ATL and fly on Delta domestically a couple of times a year. I don't particularly like their service but they are sometimes cheaper than Southwest. We don't fly often, probably 4-6x domestically in a given year.

I know that a big portion of this will depend on what i'm trying to get out of the program: miles vs. status. I honestly don't know. I just want the most bang for these miles I'm about to rack on Korean Air. I've read this forum quite a bit and it seems that a lot of people say go with FlyBlue or with DL.

Since I'm in ATL, it probably does make sense to just use my DL Sky Miles because I can start flying with them more domestically. However, I feel like they don't give much value for their miles but the benefit is that they don't expire. Ahh, I'm confused and frustrated. I'm looking for the Aegean Air on Sky Team but it doesn't seem to be that easy.

So what do you guys think I should do? Any help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks everyone.
--umber