Originally Posted by walkerds
I recently finished up college and have begun graduate school at Stanford near SJC (and SFO, kinda). In this situation, I am 23, and have an income of approximately $30k a year, $10k of which goes to housing. I have a girlfriend in Austin, a family in Louisville, and I need a better plan to keep my travel costs down.
Use search or travel agent sites to check flight availability for your travels (check Southwest on its own site). Check each airline's FF program and check which airlines have FF partnerships with each other. Check how much flying it would take you to get the awards you want from each program.
Note that FF partnerships can be used to pool multiple airlines' flight miles into one program. For example, Alaska has mileage partnerships with American, Continental, Delta, and Northwest, and United and US Airways / America West have a mileage partnership with each other (but American does
not have a mileage partnership with Continental, Delta, or Northwest).