Originally Posted by
HotelAspiration
(1) What is your home airport? GSP/AVL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Main Cabin
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?(0-5k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a PFPetc.) FOR me it’s redemption rates at main cabin flexible fare awards.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often US Domestic Airlines Only
(7) Preferred Airlines= Anything but Allegiant, Spirit & Frontier.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) Pleasure and main cabin.
Really if you're flying 5k or less miles a year that's not enough to build up any meaningful balance, so I'd be booking based on convenience. I think you'd be best to couple it with a credit card, assuming you spend a decent amount. Chase issues UA, Citi and Barclay's for AA, BOA for AS, and Amex for Delta. All give similar benefits on their respective airlines and all offer pretty decent sign up bonuses, but especially with Amex it's worth checking what the highest bonuses have been and wait for a similar offer. The highest level card that includes lounge access probably doesn't make sense for you, but the next level down often has a pretty attractive bonus.
There are cards also for other airlines, like Chase has BA and IB cards, but if you're not flying international they wouldn't be as beneficial as the AA or AS card if looking for OneWorld miles. There's also a JL and CX card, but both US market cards are garbage.