Originally Posted by deepdishus
I've been getting a friend of mine to stick with one airline (or two) every time he flies so he can eventually build miles. His reasons for not doing it? 1) "I don't fly enough... just 4x a year" (He flies 3x a year ORD-LAX and once to Brazil) 2) "I can fly cheaper if I look for the lowest fare" (Yeah maybe not more than $30 per flight to LAX) and 3) "It's just too much trouble... one more thing to keep up with" (Should I even comment on this?).
Personally, I don't find any single airline (or alliance) to always be the best for any given trip (schedule convenience, fewest stops, price). So my flying habits tend to use a lot of different airlines.
However, I do collect frequent flyer miles and points on those flights, concentrating them on a smaller number of airline programs based on alliances and partnerships[*]. That has still managed to produce some award tickets, despite not concentrating on any given airline.
[*] Basically, I have UA to cover Star Alliance airlines, AS to cover a bunch of other airlines including AA, CO, NW, and DL, and WN for itself.