Hey Newbie , welcome aboard. You're gonna have fun on here.

Basically speaking, you can't combine miles... with that said, you can transfer miles from some airlines to Hilton, then out to a new airline, but the conversion cost is huge, about half... you'd really have to hate the first airline to consider doing that. Apart from that, you can transfer miles/points from hotels and Amex(yuck ) into the airlines... that's about it...

Essentially, the name of the game is to go find an airline or alliance, hotel, car rental commpany that you like, and stick with it. That is how you get elite status and the perks come in droves, try it...

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Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
HH GLD, SCI GLD, MM SIL
LE PRESIDENT ETERNEL DE CAMAIR-CAMEROUN AIRLINES