Optimum combination of FF programs
Apr 28, 2001, 11:32 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: SFO, Starwood Gold
Posts: 252
Optimum combination of FF programs
Here's a challenge: what combination of FF programs will enable you to fly the widest range of airlines while still avoiding dispersing your miles too widely? The goal is to get as many miles as possible on as few programs as possible, while still being able to choose which airline to fly based on price.
The combination that I use:
Northwest
US Air
Continental
Delta
I also am members of United and American's FF programs, but have never actually found it necessary to fly them. The *vast* majority of my business goes to Northwest and US Air.
Continental is primarily useful because of its partner agreements with Frontier and America West. Northwest is great for a lot of reasons, but among others for its partnership with Sprint and Sprint PCS. US Air is a great airline that often has creative bonuses.
My set of six airlines would enable you to fly *almost* any other airline and still get FF miles. Anyone care to propose an alternative set of airlines? More/fewer?
The combination that I use:
Northwest
US Air
Continental
Delta
I also am members of United and American's FF programs, but have never actually found it necessary to fly them. The *vast* majority of my business goes to Northwest and US Air.
Continental is primarily useful because of its partner agreements with Frontier and America West. Northwest is great for a lot of reasons, but among others for its partnership with Sprint and Sprint PCS. US Air is a great airline that often has creative bonuses.
My set of six airlines would enable you to fly *almost* any other airline and still get FF miles. Anyone care to propose an alternative set of airlines? More/fewer?
Apr 28, 2001, 12:18 pm
#4
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Burlingame, CA
Programs: TK Miles & Smiles, CM ConnectMiles, AA Advantage
Posts: 2,129
Currently most of my travel points go to USAIR DIVIDENDS since I am a Preferred member and I enjoy getting the extra bonus. I find their service to be better than the rest of the other US carriers.
I am also member of AAdvantage, Continental One Pass, NW Worldperks, AF Frequence Plus. I have been doing some thinking lately and would concentrate on accruing miles through US DIVIDENDS, NW Worldperks and AF. My choice for US is obvious, I have the most miles with them and enjoy the Preferred status. Having CO and NW programs seem to be redundant since these two carriers have reciprocal agreements. I think NW has very creative marketing bonuses and provides unlimited upgrades to its Elite members, so that alone might be worth it (although the service has a lot of room for improvement). AF Frequence is the easiest program to attain top tier membership with just 25,000 to become AF Freq Blue and 40,000 AF Freq Rouge. Flying on any member of the SKYTEAM will earn you points and they pretty much cover the world. Besides, the amount of points needed to redeem awards might be very enticing at times. One time I couldn't believe it when AF offered a BUSINESS CLASS award from N. America to Europe for only 50,000 miles or something in that neighborhood. Personally I have always enjoyed flying AF and I think that their crew is polite and very professional, not to mention one of the the best looking.
I am also member of AAdvantage, Continental One Pass, NW Worldperks, AF Frequence Plus. I have been doing some thinking lately and would concentrate on accruing miles through US DIVIDENDS, NW Worldperks and AF. My choice for US is obvious, I have the most miles with them and enjoy the Preferred status. Having CO and NW programs seem to be redundant since these two carriers have reciprocal agreements. I think NW has very creative marketing bonuses and provides unlimited upgrades to its Elite members, so that alone might be worth it (although the service has a lot of room for improvement). AF Frequence is the easiest program to attain top tier membership with just 25,000 to become AF Freq Blue and 40,000 AF Freq Rouge. Flying on any member of the SKYTEAM will earn you points and they pretty much cover the world. Besides, the amount of points needed to redeem awards might be very enticing at times. One time I couldn't believe it when AF offered a BUSINESS CLASS award from N. America to Europe for only 50,000 miles or something in that neighborhood. Personally I have always enjoyed flying AF and I think that their crew is polite and very professional, not to mention one of the the best looking.
Apr 28, 2001, 1:38 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: SFO, Starwood Gold
Posts: 252
I completely agree about US Air. Their service is better than any other airline that I have flown. I hope they don't get bought by UA.
As for CO/NW, I was tempted to conclude that membership in both programs would be redundant, but for the partners! Often America West and Frontier have the best deals for transcontinental travel, but who wants to be a member of their FF programs? Since CO (and only CO) partners with them, it does make sense to belong to the CO program.
On the other hand, belonging to the NW program makes sense because you can accumulate so many bonus miles with them...
As for CO/NW, I was tempted to conclude that membership in both programs would be redundant, but for the partners! Often America West and Frontier have the best deals for transcontinental travel, but who wants to be a member of their FF programs? Since CO (and only CO) partners with them, it does make sense to belong to the CO program.
On the other hand, belonging to the NW program makes sense because you can accumulate so many bonus miles with them...
Apr 28, 2001, 2:14 pm
#6
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Spring Lake,NJ
Posts: 1,219
Obviously you guys haven't looked at the bonuses we've been getting on the CO board..I just got 86k on one round trip EWR-AMS...with some members reportedly getting 200K on a RT EWR-HKG....it's been a plethera of bonuses since late last year >>I myself have put over 400K in my account since mid December..and you can qualify with segments on CO...but not NW.
Apr 28, 2001, 2:15 pm
#7
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Spring Lake,NJ
Posts: 1,219
Obviously you guys haven't looked at the bonuses we've been getting on the CO board..I just got 86k on one round trip EWR-AMS...with some members reportedly getting 200K on a RT EWR-HKG....it's been a plethera of bonuses since late last year >>I myself have put over 400K in my account since mid December..and you can qualify with segments on CO...but not NW. CO now has Midway too...another option!
Apr 28, 2001, 2:20 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: SFO, Starwood Gold
Posts: 252
Actually, I have looked on that board and have booked a flight on 5/11 returning 5/15 because of those bonuses. But almost all of those bonuses run out on 5/15. Other than the Frontier/America West partnerships, what is the point of being in CO FF program after those bonuses expire?
Midway is partnering with both NW and CO, so that's not a reason to prefer CO.
Midway is partnering with both NW and CO, so that's not a reason to prefer CO.
Apr 28, 2001, 3:27 pm
#10
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: UA 1k, AA Plt, MR Lifetime Plat & Amb
Posts: 1,829
Here is how I work it;
Airlines
AS Miles go to AA
AA Primary Carrier
DL Last Resort
NW Tertiary Carrier
TWA Last Resort, but merging to AA
UA Secondary Carrier
Hotel Programs
HH Double Dip
Hyatt Keep at Hotel Points
Marriott Roll into AA as Miles
SPG Keep as Hotel Points
WCH Roll into AA as Miles
Car Programs
Hertz Keep as car points (only b/c of the small numbers)
Airlines
AS Miles go to AA
AA Primary Carrier
DL Last Resort
NW Tertiary Carrier
TWA Last Resort, but merging to AA
UA Secondary Carrier
Hotel Programs
HH Double Dip
Hyatt Keep at Hotel Points
Marriott Roll into AA as Miles
SPG Keep as Hotel Points
WCH Roll into AA as Miles
Car Programs
Hertz Keep as car points (only b/c of the small numbers)
Apr 28, 2001, 3:53 pm
#11
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Third planet from the Sun
Posts: 7,022
The goal is to get as many miles as possible on as few programs as possible, while still being able to choose which airline to fly based on price.
Both AA and UA will offer th rougly the same fares and rougly the same routings/choices on their networks and alliance partners. UA might be a better choice since you can earn AS miles on AA and BA and LA but this is more of a personal choice.
By keeping it down to two programs, you maximize the number of miles earned and still have a fairly wide choice of routes and fares.
The only airline that is not fully represented here would be Delta and the sky team alliance--no big loss.
Apr 28, 2001, 4:44 pm
#12
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Spring Lake,NJ
Posts: 1,219
Each person's situation is different ...depending on where they reside(for hub reasons)..how much of their travel is 1) Hotel stays and 2) Air miles ...some are weighted more heavily on one side than the other thus; the need to dump points onto the lighter side. For me:
Living within hub distance of PHL(US) or EWR(CO)..I chose CO as it's closer to my office. I fly around 100K per year and about 75% of it is domestic.
CO-Primary
NW- Goes in my CO account
HP-Also goes in my CO account
DL- Very rarely...almost always get one of the first 3 with CO being about 80%
Hotels: I get somewhere around 200 nights per year in hotels.
Hilton- Double Dip and HUGE bonuses right now...keep as Hilton points ..but always have option to transfer them out at a bad rate.
Marriott- Used to be my #1 program 200K award was untouchable...they've ruined that! Keep as Marriott points.
Starwood-Good program but not enough properties for me..I stay with them when I get the chance..and during the promos..
Definitely keep as Starpoints.
Car Rental...I get around 200 rental days per year.
Avis- at 50 points per day..Starwood account gets my points here..and 2 or 3 promos per year with double points doesn't hurt. The key for me is that the points are PER DAY...my rentals are usually for the week and 500 miles or so for the week just doesn't cut it..I would rather have 250 Starpoints...my Avis rentals alone get me 3-4 free nights at the 4k level per year..not bad!
Oh yeah...and AMEX points always into an airline account ...usually my CO account too...bad exchange rates on hotels...but here is where some people dump points into the hotel programs due to the fact that they get enough air miles but stays aren't long enough to mount heavy hotel points.
Just my 3 cents
Living within hub distance of PHL(US) or EWR(CO)..I chose CO as it's closer to my office. I fly around 100K per year and about 75% of it is domestic.
CO-Primary
NW- Goes in my CO account
HP-Also goes in my CO account
DL- Very rarely...almost always get one of the first 3 with CO being about 80%
Hotels: I get somewhere around 200 nights per year in hotels.
Hilton- Double Dip and HUGE bonuses right now...keep as Hilton points ..but always have option to transfer them out at a bad rate.
Marriott- Used to be my #1 program 200K award was untouchable...they've ruined that! Keep as Marriott points.
Starwood-Good program but not enough properties for me..I stay with them when I get the chance..and during the promos..
Definitely keep as Starpoints.Car Rental...I get around 200 rental days per year.
Avis- at 50 points per day..Starwood account gets my points here..and 2 or 3 promos per year with double points doesn't hurt. The key for me is that the points are PER DAY...my rentals are usually for the week and 500 miles or so for the week just doesn't cut it..I would rather have 250 Starpoints...my Avis rentals alone get me 3-4 free nights at the 4k level per year..not bad!
Oh yeah...and AMEX points always into an airline account ...usually my CO account too...bad exchange rates on hotels...but here is where some people dump points into the hotel programs due to the fact that they get enough air miles but stays aren't long enough to mount heavy hotel points.
Just my 3 cents
Apr 29, 2001, 1:09 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: SFO, Starwood Gold
Posts: 252
Originally posted by IM4Travel:
FYI...there are 2 AMEX bonuses that continue after 5/15..they go all the way until 6/30...they are both DOUBLE miles...is that not a good reason?
FYI...there are 2 AMEX bonuses that continue after 5/15..they go all the way until 6/30...they are both DOUBLE miles...is that not a good reason?
What's the other bonus you mean? I am flying CO in early June with no bonuses except online booking... I'd love to add some other bonuses to that trip.
Apr 29, 2001, 6:23 am
#14
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Spring Lake,NJ
Posts: 1,219
GGONE CHWR runs until 6/30...DOUBLE MILES...and the Blue card bonus BLM1...make sure you sign up for both...even though you may not use the blue card...some folks are reporting that they've gotten the bonus anyway (including me ). Is that now enough for you to prefer CO...or you want to debate more? Earlier you stated that NW has SO MANY bonus opportunities...they couldn't even carry CO's jock strap as far as bonuses go in the last 6 months...at one point we were earning 7-10 times the amount of miles flown...now with those two bonuses you still earn over 4X the miles flown with your status miles (PLAT=125%). GO over to the CO board and read the thread titled "NEW GGONE BONUS SUMMARY" by Vulcan..and you will get the picture. His original thread was so popular ..we had to start a new one.
[This message has been edited by IM4Travel (edited 04-29-2001).]
). Is that now enough for you to prefer CO...or you want to debate more? Earlier you stated that NW has SO MANY bonus opportunities...they couldn't even carry CO's jock strap as far as bonuses go in the last 6 months...at one point we were earning 7-10 times the amount of miles flown...now with those two bonuses you still earn over 4X the miles flown with your status miles (PLAT=125%). GO over to the CO board and read the thread titled "NEW GGONE BONUS SUMMARY" by Vulcan..and you will get the picture. His original thread was so popular ..we had to start a new one. [This message has been edited by IM4Travel (edited 04-29-2001).]
