Originally Posted by tjl
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.
Agreed. And I do the same thing. Although I tend to concentrate more on various airlines within one alliance, in my case Star. However, in my friend's case, he is just all over the place with airlines and hotels and doesn't care much to sign up for any frequent flyer/stay program. So I figured I could maybe introduce some discipline to his flying habits and have him start accumulating something and watch it grow. Hopefully that will result in motivation for him to sign up with other airlines and partners.