My apologies for asking what has probably been asked a million times, but I could really use some help. And if this is in the wrong place, please feel free to move it!

I'm fairly a inexperienced traveller and I have never used any frequent flier program. I'm living in South Korea now, and about to fly back to the US to visit friends and family. I would like to join a mileage program but I am a bit lost as to which one is best.

I don't know what information is needed to help me out with this, so I'll just give you some basics. I will be travelling around the US for about a month and half and then going back to Korea. I plan to visit California (SF, LA, and maybe spots in between), Vegas, Minneapolis (my hometown!), New York, and possibly Vancouver.

I'm mostly interested in status, I think. I just want to be treated well when I fly. The one business-class flight I took to Vietnam was incredibly pleasant and I'd like any or all of those perks again. Free flights would be nice, but I'm suspicious about how easy they would actually be to get, so that's not my priority at the moment (but could change).

Thank you for any advice you can give!!

I'd vote United MileagePlus. Here's why.

Flying from Korea to the US, you have 2 local options: Korean Air and Asiana.

Korean Air partners with Delta SkyMiles, but SkyMiles are rubbish. Asiana, however, partners with United MileagePlus which are a lot more valuable.

United did just devalue their award chart, but it's still a lot better than Delta SkyMiles.

Additionally, I'm guessing you'll be doing some traveling around Asia in the future? If that's true, the Star Alliance network will be great for you since you can earn United MileagePlus while flying Asiana, ANA, Air China, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways.

United will be probably be easier for you to earn status on while flying around Asia with all those Star Alliance partners. Your US trip this year will only get you so far so you'll want to think about what program is best for where you're living. In my opinion, that's United.

Welcome to the forum

Agree United look good for you. However some people like Agean A3 as status is not that hard to get

From another thread
Best Frequent Flyer Program for you?
The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?
- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
- which airline and where do you normally fly?
- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
- where do you live?
- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
- there is a big difference between a frequent flyer and a frequent spender getting ff miles from a credit card
- etc, etc, etc



Look at the blue linked posts here in post 9
and
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

Thank you. This has been immensely helpful. I will move my question to the more appropriate spot and answer some more of the basic questions. Thanks!