My goal was to "consolodate" in the " To simply" sense of the word...

My goal was to "zero out" some of the fledging FF accts I have held. This would not only make it easier to manage what I do have in the end, and thus concentrate more on the ones I really like, but also it would enable me to not even care one bit about having a few miles lying around in some airline I dont even want my best friend to fly! (thus, grabbing them a ticket using your award miles may be a curse). The process took time and yet, if you spend time and thoroughness on a topic in the beginning, it gets simpler and easier in the end, I think.

To do this action I speak of above, what I have beguun to do is to SHORE UP my miles accts using idine, etc, and other things we all know about to earn miles without flying, and THEN plan to later USE the awards, and then be done with that FF account.

I learned a few things in the process about things, miles, airlines, marketing schemes that are sometimes bogus, timing, and oh yes, about people. And oddly, some of the airlines I thought I did not like anymore proved me wrong, while I was right about some others.

The basic dictum: I once may have gleefully set up FF accts with everyone but they may never add up if I fly on too many carriers so why not pick and chose the ones I really like or use and get rid of the rest. This is the consolodation the experts talk about but once you are in, you need to come out of it and then find your new base. that is what I have done. I did not have a ton of miles, but enough. It was worth the tries, I think, and still is. the ones I like are growing and the ones I do not like or need are not going to go to waste after all. This is kind of why my wife was looking to put her mere 5000 UAL miles into HHilton. She never really uses that airline, to date. Her last UAL flight put the miles onto a partner anyway, where she does have a growing FF acct.

In the case of at least one airline--I think Delta, if you ever do leave an exact "0" bal in your FF acct for a certain length of time, they will cancel you out completely. If you have no elite status with an airline, then who cares! Plus, I suspect that if you quit in this way (get taken off their list, per sae) then you could always join up again and get all the new account membership bonusses again if you ever change your mind.

We all sometimes have too many little memberships to things in the mail and on line out there anyway, right? Let's slim down a bit and get it simpler.

BUT, what I have been able to do (and yes, I have had some time on my hands-I admit--which always seems to be a "dig" that people love to give to others as if that were a bad thing) is this:

I have "brought up" some FF accts to exactly 5,10,25, or 35k award levels, etc. I figured out who was partners with who and which ones fly to places for where my miles will take me, like Hawaii or Aspen, etc. and which ones I may never use after the free flights for my wife and I. I used idine to top things off to exact or as close to an even thousand mark that CAN be useful, and that way, when you need to fly, you dont have miles hanging that are rendered useless. For example, the wife had 4,910 miles on her UAL so one quick lunch to the local pub where my debit card was temporarily assigned by me to idine to HER somewhat useless UAL acct (which legally works by the way) for $9 including tip, and she had the 90 miles needed to get her to 5k, which I have since learned will be worth 10k hotel points that we can actually USE one day together!

UAL or others would have made me have to buy 1000 miles (their lowest incriment) in order to later do that same transfer. I can idine at 8 places near the office and so why not go that route?

More thoughts?