Welcome to the board. I have been banking my miles in Alaska for years. I know that a lot of people have recommended them as a good account for banking miles because of the variety of partners they have. The Alaska miles are also do not expire. You can fly these airlines:
Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Big Sky Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Era Aviation, Hawaiian Airlines, HeliJet, Horizon Air, KLM, LAN, Northwest Airlines, PenAir, Qantas
NW and Cathay will both get you to China and several of the others will get you to Spain. Alaska works well from Vancouver where you are based and I'm not sure if they have it in Canada, but at Safeways around here you can get Alaska miles with the store card.
The main thing is to try to find an airline that has partners that travel where you want to go.
Originally Posted by emmapangxu
I am an student in Canada, who travel between Canada and China about once a year ( I am an chinese international student in Canada). I also travel a bit in my school breaks - for instance I flew with Alaska airline to Los angeles this year.
I am about to go back to China and come back to Canada again. This time I am wondering if I can take advantage of this long-distance flight and begin my accumulation of airmiles. Currently I am not a member of any flight program except for my airmiles card which I use when I do grocery in Safeway.