good morning and yeah yeah yeah, the perennial need help picking a program.

so, a bit about me:
• this will be my first true enrollment in a program, outside a casual sign up for SWA
• no airline credit card program yet, but have other cards from AMEX and DSCV in good standing
• portland, or based, may move again in a year-- possible to the NYC area, possibly to the DEN or SFO area, possibly stay in the PDX area
•.plan to make mileage runs from the portland area when possible, but the budget is tight so i won't be hammering every weekend
• fly to the ALB and sometimes BTV area a few times a year, including this holiday-season, so before i fly i want to enroll

my current thoughts: Delta or Alaska Air since i'm PDX based and plan to be for at least another 10 months. Delta because i may move to DEN, SFO, or LGA/JFK.

any and all help is appreciated.

A couple quick observations:

-If you think you'll end up (due to fares/schedule availability/etc.) flying a mix of AS, DL, and AA out of PDX, go for AS. It's a good program, miles can be used in a variety of ways, and AS is generally more customer-friendly than other airlines. If you can get status on AS before you move, then after you move (and if you find AS doesn't work as well for you in your new home), you may be able to get a status match to an equivalent status level on another carrier.
-Why would you say you'd pick DL if you move to DEN or SFO? Those are both UA hubs. Not that it's necessary to be a frequent flyer with the airline that owns a particular hub, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that those cities are UA hubs, not DL hubs. In NYC, UA has EWR as its hub while DL has JFK as its hub. Where you live in NYC can pretty strongly affect which airport you end up flying out of.
-For flying to small airports like ALB and BTV, it really doesn't matter who you pick. You're going to end up connecting at least one time to get there. Whether that's PDX-IAD-ALB on UA or PDX-DTW-ALB on DL or PDX-PHL-ALB on US, it's all kind of the same. In other words, these kind of flights (from one outstation to another outstation) really don't affect your comparison that much.

I concur with what Jackal said above. Delta has horrible award availability and is significantly increase redemption levels and will be requiring revenue based qualification. United also is raising award redemption levels and also going revenue based.

I find that Alaska gives the best redemption on a number of excellent partners. So far they have not increased levels so for now they are the best option even with the small market to the East. One earns on DL and AA as well as AS.

I wish that a couple of million miles ago I had gone with AS.

ok, so, i think i'm going AS in this case, and then if i move go for the status match depending on new location/hub etc. thanks for the help.

next, probably very newbish, question. i will sometimes/oftentimes be making flights with my girlfriend. if i book two tickets on, say, a 10k mile trip, will i earn 20k miles? is it better to have her enroll in her own program? my gut feeling says i will get 20k miles and she shouldn't get her own if we're flying together.

thanks again.

Miles generally get credited to the person flying regardless of whether you paid for them or not. Some airlines (NH comes to mind) allow you to pool family miles but that's the only one I know of. So sign up your girlfriend so you can both earn miles.

It's usually possible to transfer miles from one program to another but again, usually airlines charge you $$ to do so.

gooduser Welcome to the forum

AS is a good program. Has a wide range of partners, including Delta
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx
You can get miles into you FFP by flying partner airlines

These may be interest:-
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

It's usually not possible to transfer miles from one program to another program. With some FFP's miles can be laundered through a site like http://www.webflyer.com or www.points.com or a hotel program but the conversion rate is bad. Some programs allow transfer of miles from one member to another eligible family member. But often with fees. Some programs allow family pooling of miles. All subject to the FFP t&c’s.

i think i follow, let me see if i do: if i buy two tickets on my credit card, one to be used by my girlfriend, the mileage gets tacked to her name? it doesn't matter who pays for the ticket, just who uses it?

then, when booking, is it better to use one card and one transaction, or two separate?

Each passenger earns one mile per mile flown. Who bought it and where it was bought doesn't matter. If you buy tickets for four other people (and you don't fly) on a 2,000-mile flight, then you earn 0 miles and each passenger earns 2,000 miles in his or her personal mileage account.

One transaction-ticket-PNR probably gets you sitting beside each other.
With seperate tickets-PNRs you may, or will not be, sitting beside each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNR
Indeed after you buy 1 ticket, you may not be able to find a seat on the same flight for the same price

There is no advanatge in having seperate transactions.

you're all very helpful. good stuff here.

so, i'm a little worried about going AS simply because i'm not deeply rooted in the pacific northwest. i like the area a good deal, but i do have plans to move around/move back to the east and new york before settling down for good, be it here again or somewhere else on the west coast/rockies.

so what's the benefit of going AS outside of the access to PDX/SEA and a good program if i have the possibility of moving out of the area? is there one?

then, if i went with a larger carrier, should i look to AA, UA, or DL? DL seems to have a bad wrap but nice partners, AA merger seems promising in terms of size, partnerships, etc., and UA seems already massive, "stable" and in lots of locations.

things i'm partial to:
• free checked bags
• easy check-in and boarding
• quick access to free flights
• good, inexpensive credit card program
• something resembling good customer service, some moderate level of flexibility, the feeling of not being screwed at every turn

You don't have to be deeply rooted to the Pacific NW to like AS. You can earn AS MileagePlan when you fly AS, AA, and DL. You can burn AS MileagePlan on flights from AS, AA, and DL. It's that versatile.

Going with AS doesn't restrict you to the PNW. AS is partners with DL and AA, so if you move elsewhere, you'll still get benefits on those airlines--in fact, AS status is the only way you can get benefits on both AA and DL (as AA and DL are not partners with each other). I'm less familiar with AA and its entry-level GLD status, but from what I understand, you really don't get many more benefits as a DL FO flying on DL than you do as an AS MVP flying on DL. I know many people who are AS elites who live nowhere near the core of AS's route network. That said, few of those who live on the east coast maintain AS as their primary program--they treat it as more of a backup program. Still, it's not something to automatically throw out.

As for UA vs. DL vs. AA...well, I'll have to leave that for others to analyze. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now that UA has decided it doesn't like flyers like me. Note that both UA and DL require a minimum spend to hit their status levels now. AA doesn't (for now).

"Free flights" are often not free. You pay real taxes and with some FFP's you pay cash surcharges (YQ fuel surchage). These can be high $ and high % of a direct purchase price.
Flexibilty depends on the ticket t&c's. The more you spend (fare bucket) the better the flexibilty
Other benefits come with status

As for AS and not living in the NW, at one time I had status with Delta yet I have never been on a Delta aircraft

From a post on 2 Feb 2013

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned here is the $100 companion certificate you get every year you have the card. It's only good on coach tickets now but can be used for Hawaii plus lots of other places. It's a very nice feature of the card.

I would disagree. When an airline has only one seat left at a price, in money or miles, with separate PNRs you can get one cheap ticket and one more expensive one on the same flight unless of course it only has one seat left. With one PNR, vote tickets will necessarily be at the more expensive fare in money or miles.