Trying to choose the right miles programs / miles transfer question.
 

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the FT forums and I have a bit of a two part question. I was told this would be the place to ask it!

First I am hoping to get some opinions as to which miles program I should focus my time and money on. I am currently an AA member, but am hoping to get started with another airline as well.

Second, I want to know how easy it is to transfer miles between alliances? Is it possible at all? Or when I have AA miles can I only transfer to other Oneworld airlines?

Some information that may be helpful: I’m using miles mostly for international flights to visit friends in Europe, and my main airport at home is ORD in Chicago.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

Brianna

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You cannot transfer AA miles to any other airline -- not even a oneworld airline -- without going through one or more other programs and usually suffering significant devaluation of your miles along the way.

You can, however, redeem AA miles on any oneworld carrier, as well as about a dozen or so other carriers. (AA has many non-oneworld partners.)

For travel from ORD to Europe, you can redeem AA miles for travel on AA, AB, AY, BA, IB, and 9W. Redemptions on BA should be avoided, because of high surcharges. The aa.com website displays award availability on AA, AB, AY, and BA. You must call AA for award travel on IB and 9W. Not all of these carriers serve ORD, so connections at other North American cities will be required in some cases.

Great, thank you so much for clearing up the AA redemption rules for me -- much appreciated!

Does anyone have another suggestion as to another airline where I should / could focus my efforts?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Because UA has such a large presence at ORD, I would suggest either collecting UA miles, or miles on UA partners that can be redeemed on UA. Aeroplan and ANA are two UA partners, e.g. If you decide to start collecting American Express Membership Rewards points, those points can then be converted to Aeroplan or ANA points, and redeemed for travel on UA. Otherwise, look at the Chase credit cards that either earn UA miles directly, or that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be converted to UA miles.