Originally Posted by
chrisrozon
I'm planning a trip to Montreal with the kids this summer, and looking to maximize the rewards/mileage experience.
We can fly out of any Bay Area airport (OAK / SJC / SFO).
I'm an Alaska MVP, and less travel last year means I don't have status with any other airlines right now. I can't see any partners who fly those routes except American, and as far as I can see I'll *maybe* get some mileage credit but nothing else.
Anyone have any suggestions/hacks/workarounds? Please don't make me fly United!
Concur with others that your best bets are JFK, ORD, or BOS, and then a separate ticket to YUL. Whether that separate ticket is AA or another airline is not very important since you’ll earn few miles and get no benefits anyway.
But is this really cost effective? Depending on the dates it seems like some single-ticket alternatives might be considerably cheaper, and I don’t understand what “benefits” you’d really be getting as a MVP traveling with family (you won’t get a First upgrade transcon, and IIRC you can’t even bring up a single companion to Premium). Free bags? Also keep in mind that since it’s two separate tickets, you either need to book very long layovers, or you need to deal with the stress of possibly missing the connection and incurring a lot of expenses after your tickets get cancelled.