Thanks...This is what I see on ITA matrix. Can someone help me understand this please?

4 FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT
2 IN CAN/LAX IN EACH DIRECTION
2 IN YVR/NYC IN EACH DIRECTION
2 IN WUH/SFO IN EACH DIRECTION.
AND - UNLIMITED STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT AT
USD 100.00 EACH.
AND - UNLIMITED FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING
UNIT
IN CONTIGUOUS U.S.A WHEN NOT VIA SAME CARRIER.
AND - UNLIMITED STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT AT
USD 250.00 EACH
IN CONTIGUOUS U.S.A. WHEN VIA SAME CARRIER.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.

I suppose the most important thing would be the ability to use them easily. Next to that I'd want to make sure the airline could get me anywhere I wanted to go. Once those two requirements were met I would like to fly 1st class as frequently as possible. My primary goal is to travel the world.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.

As of right now a big fat zero. Although I flew about 5000 this year. But I like flying, I just don't have a great job.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy

Economy.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Yes and pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.

Domestic USA

6. What is your home airport?

Depends. 40 miles south, FLL. 20 miles north, PBI

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?

Delta. 4200.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

I don't know that I have any. I've heard American/US Airways are good.

I will be flying a round trip later this year to Europe and back via Lufthansa. They had a great deal on their Premium Econmomy that was, at that time, less than most of the competing regular economy fares. Otherwise I would probably have booked Delta as I like their reliability.

However, Lufthansa miles have a 3 year life that is more difficult to extend than US airlines, and I am not sure if I will fly the airline very often. While the cheaper airfare is worth losing the miles (dollars trump miles) it would be nice not to lose them.

Any suggestions as to what airline reward plan I can use? The only reasonable alternative seems to be United, but, I thought I would ask in case I have overlooked something. At this point I might even consider a hotel plan rather than simply let them expire in 3 years.

If you get the Miles and More credit card, the miles wouldn't expire and as a bonus you will get a signup bonus.

Thanks for the advice in advance. I've recently started reading several blogs and flyertalk and am excited to learn from everyones experiences!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.
>>> Reply: Upgrades and good award redemption rates (bang for buck on coach and first class)

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
>>> Reply: Less than 25,000 miles but I run my own business so accrue several hundred thousand in expenses per year.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Mostly pleasure, 2-3 flights a year for work

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: From LAX to Seoul (Korea) and short distances from LAX (SFO, Seattle, sometimes towards the east coast but rarely)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: LAX

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: No, I only have 25k miles remaining in skymiles so I can essentially start from scratch.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Korean Air, Asiana.

Stay away from Miles and More. It is a terrible program nowadays and only makes sense if you fly LH group business and first all the time. Just credit to UA, good *A program for US residents.

I appreciate the suggestion.

I looked at that, but it requires monthly use of the card and the miles will mostly just sit there, not enough to use for much of anything, because I don't think I will be flying Lufthansa that often. Of course, I could be wrong about that if they keep throwing very competitive offers at me. ;-)

Hi everyone, I've been enjoying reading everyone's advice for others, and I wonder if you could offer some for me. I'm about to have a job that involves travel for the first time in several years (used to be on US), and a lot about my situation has changed since the last time I did this.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
The experience of flying is the thing I'm most concerned about. Upgrades, priority security lines, being treated well, etc. Award redemptions are nice but secondary.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Not a huge amount. 50,000 miles/year is my best guess at the moment. Flying is all or mostly economy.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airlines, but probably not class of service. I travel for both work and pleasure. My most common airlines lately have been Delta, JetBlue, American, and Aer Lingus, but I'm not tied to anything.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Very common with the new job: NYC�LAX, NYC�LHR/BHX, NYC�BOS, NYC�DCA, along with various other domestic routes.
Fairly common for my personal life: NYC�SNN, NYC�DUB, NYC�PWM, NYC�BHB.

(6) What is your home airport?
I live in Brooklyn. JFK and LGA are closest. EWR is slightly farther off.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
No status anymore. No significant number of miles banked with any one airline, but I do have a sizeable number of American Express MR points that I've been using for Aer Lingus redemptions. (I have a Platinum AmEx, also, that I can use for Delta lounge access.)

(8) Preferred Airlines
I haven't flown constantly in the past few years, so any strong feelings I have are probably a little out of date. Here's what I've been thinking, though:

• American (solid, esp. the Aer Lingus connection, but not great for the Maine flights)
• Delta (good for a lot but not so much for the Europe flights)
• JetBlue (maybe just give up on the upgrade idea?)
• United (do I really want to trek to EWR all the time?)
• Alaska (would hardly ever be able to fly on their metal though)

Any thoughts much appreciated.

The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?
I am looking for a program that will give me the most miles for my money, has alot of airlines it can transfer miles to, and
- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
I am not sure yet, but I think that it depends on the perks for gaining said status. Because of work, I do not think I will have loyalty status at anywhere besides Marriott but I'll probably lean towards loyalty due to not really having any time to redeem for leisure.
- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
I am not sure yet, but I think I will be flying alot in the very near future. My company will usually book Marriott hotels, but the airlines we book with vary by what is cheapest
- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
Most likely flights and hotels
- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
I am very interested in class of travel. I am a big fan of Lucky's blog One Mile at a Time, and am interested in trying one of those first class experiences at least once in my life.
- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
Probably not with my own money, though our company is very different than many in that you pay for your flights and time there with your own credit card then the company will reimburse you for the money you spent. I think I am sitting on a potential cash cow and want to take advantage of it to the best of my ability.
- which airline and where do you normally fly?
Will be nation-wide on several different airlines (no loyalty, they will just book with whatever is cheapest). So far I have seen alot of American and JetBlue.
- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
I think that I will primarily be a business traveller with not much time for leisure travel, but I will be travelling alot, nationwide on many different airlines.
- where do you live?
Boston area.
- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
Not that I know of (I am green as grass in this game) but am willing to sign up for any one of those programs if it will help me get a couple more rewards. Been planning on signing up for the Chase Sapphire Premium Rewards Card and the Marriott Premier Rewards Card. Been hearing alot of good things about both.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

Hello
I'm looking for some advice on which airline FF to use for my upcoming 12 months of travel (and onwards).

Here's my questionnaire with some additional relevant information below, thank you in advance!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Upgrades and Lounge access

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
50000+, approx 14 long haul, 25 short haul

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
Business long haul, economy short haul

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Work, i can generally choose

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
London to USA but also fairly frequent to Australia plus European domestic

6. What is your home airport?
LHR

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
BA - Silver, 280k Avios, Year ends in April
Virgin, no status, 150k miles
Qantas, no status, no miles.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Cathay Pacific, Qatar, Singapore

Additional info:

My approximate schedule is:

November Various European short haul
January London to Australia return and several domestic.
March London to Dallas return.
April London to Lax return
May Various European short haul
June London to NYC return and various US domestic
July Various European short haul
September London to Toronto return
October Various European short haul
December London to Australia and various domestic.

Look into Alaska Airlines from BOS. Earn and burn on lots of airlines that have non-stops from Logan: American/Delta/Emirates/Cathay Pacific/Aeromexico/British Airways/Air France.

The only drawbacks are that there's never seems to be a waived annual fee on the Alaska Airlines Visa, some airline's low fares only get you 50% miles or even less,new location in Terminal C is a bit depressing but you have to be going to SAN/SEA/PDX to fly AS from BOS typically.

Thanks for the advice! First time I've ever gotten an answer on one of these megathreads. Dont think the visa is worth it because I dont have a specific route or region that I am traveling to. They just put me on a plane and where I end up, I end up. Alaska has an awesome group of affiliates, but I dont know if I will be traveling enough on the airline to justify getting the card. Do you think just getting FFs for each airline I travel is good enough? Or is there one card (like the BoA travel visa 1.5% earning on all purchases and no annual fee or the Chase Sapphire) that stands above the rest?

Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to this, having climbed up to UA Plat for the first time this year. Although I haven't had any major complaints about United over the last five years -- maybe I'm lucky! -- I can't say that I have been thrilled with their elite product either. As a Platinum, I still feel like a member of the herd, and very rarely get upgraded.

My wife recently took a job in the Bay Area, and we will be going back and forth between LA and San Francsico weekly for at least the next two years. I'm wondering if this is a good opportunity to try a different airline's elite program. Geographically, the most convenient route would be BUR->OAK, but any of the two regions' airports could be doable.

I plan to fly about 100k miles per year for the foreseeable future for work, both domestic and international.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I think the option with the most competition will be LAX-SFO. I don't see any non-stops to OAK in SoCal airports (just by a quick Kayak scan), and if you fly non-LAX to SFO, UA (since it has the hub) will be your best option for nonstops.

WN. Get the CCs to get the companion pass. Almost impossible to beat that combination of flexibility and multiple routes between the two areas which WN offers.

Won't show WN, which flies the route 13x next Monday.