Wellcome hiltonqueen:
You mentioned that you were looking to get miles for vacations etc. You will find that many member of this board are at least mid to top tier members of their preferred airline. Once you get to these levels, the miles for flying more times at least double.Its not necessarily as expensive as one might think. For instance, being creative and thrifty, I estimate that I spend, at most ~$3,500 to fly 75,000 real miles to get to the top tier. I also receive a 125% bonus, so I actually, after the first year, get about 170,000 miles for this $3,500. How do I do it? First, I make 4-5 mileage runs to Europe in Jan to March when the price is about $300 RT. I will go from EWR to DTW to Rome, since it cost the same as a direct flight. This will get me ~ 35,000-40,000 miles. I will then take a web special to Bangkok from NYC for about $500 for another 20,000 miles. I will fill in with unusual routings (Instead of flying ewr-atl, I will go phl-cle-dtw-atl and back for the same price ($145) and rack up miles this way. You need to look at it as a gigantic game constantly looking for specials or legal conviluted routings to maximize miles. From your location on the west coast, I would expect that there are cheap cyber trips to Asia.Even though you are in Oregon, I'll bet that you can chose, for the same price, to go via SEA or LAX, or even DTW. Always look for the maximum miles. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea. I suggest posting some questions you might have in the forum of your prefrerred airline. There are many people like myself who would be happy to help you. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me.
Ed