Ok, let me cut to the chase...

I finally have my passport and am ready to see the world, but I need help. I have pretty much decided that, because I don't have much time to travel, I am going to visit a different foreign country every month, but only for a weekend. This way, I can get a sample of the various countries of the world and decide which one I want to spend a week or to in.

I know that what I need to do to maximize my miles and rewards is to fly all of my flights on a single carrier and / or it's partners. Thus my dilemma. I have scoured the web and researched the various Frequent Flyer programs but still can't determine which one I should use.

I know that CO won the Freddies for both Best Program and best Elite Program, but I have had issues with CO flights in the past.

Moreover, I don't really live near any Hub cities for any of the airlines. When I lived in Detroit is was simple, Northwest. When living in Seattle, Alaska... But now I live in San Diego... We have flights from everybody. Also, I wouldn't mind driving or hopping to LAX to catch my flights out of the country, but I can't seem to tell if they are a hub for anybody.

Trust me, I have done more FT program research than is probably necessary. But I still can't figure this out.

I stumbled upon FlyerTalk today and saw a golden opportunity to ask the experts... From reading the existing threads, I can tell that you all know alot more than I do about travel and FT programs... So I ask you, please help me figure this out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I figure that I will be flying between 90k and 150k miles in 2001 and don't want to waste a single mile or dollar. I am pretty good at finding cheap flights online, but this whole FT thing has me stumped.

On a different note, any suggestions where to go? I would like to stay within 12 hours of SAN / LAX if possible... I have a list of 5 places so far; London, Lisbon, Tokyo, Dublin and Caracas. ( not necessarily in that order )

Any help would be great.


-S