Hello! I currently live in the DC Maryland suburbs and next year I'm moving to Halifax. Right now I have about 75k miles with AA, 100k citi thank you points, and 20k starpoints.

I had been hoping to use the thank you points fixed flights to fly from halifax to dc, but I think fixed point flights have to originate in the US.

So I've noticed that the only nonstop flight from halifax to dc is on United or Air Canada. Does it make a difference which of these I buy the ticket from? Which of these FF programs would it be more beneficial to earn miles with or is it the same?

I hope to use the miles for future travel with my husband where we do not have to transit through the US, if this makes any difference.

Thanks for your help!

Will you be doing a lot of flying between Halifax and Washington?

This particular non-stop is operated by Shuttle America as United Express. United's web site says that it has "explus" seating (meaning lots of Economy Plus seats).

According to http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1314,00.html , only United Mileage Plus elites and United Global Services members can prebook Economy Plus seats, although others may get assigned to them at check in time if regular Economy is full.

So if most of your flying is on this route, and you want Economy Plus seating, it may be better to accumulate on United (or at least enough to reach the elite level needed for Economy Plus).

However, if you expect to want to use award tickets on Air Canada rather than United, then note that using United miles for partner / alliance awards requires a phone call, while Air Canada allows web booking for both Air Canada and partner / alliance awards.

If thank you points flights have to originate in the U.S. why can't you have every flight originate in the U.S.?

DC - YHZ (outbound)
stay as long as you want
YHZ - DC (inbound)

repeat as needed.

Maybe 3 times a year. I'm more concerned with using award tickets where I don't have to transit through the US. And I wasn't sure if it was easier with Air Canada miles or United miles, or if it made a difference at all. The other thing is, so far I've earned all my miles and points through credit card usage and if I continue using the starwood card in Canada, starpoints transfer to United at a rate of 2:1, I didn't see what Air Canada transfers at.

I don't know I guess the only drawback is not knowing when I want to come back to DC and I'm not sure if there are any rules for completing travel within a certain number of days but if that works, @:-)THAT'S BRILLIANT@:-) and thank you so much for suggesting it.