Your type of travel, where it's a mixture of economy and first, just about requires you to get a spreadsheet out and look at what you spent the last year, and the distances involved, to see what makes sense.

At the 75K level at UA, you would earn 9 miles per dollar on the fare BEFORE taxes. Look as what you've spent the last year, deduct 5-10% for taxes, and you should come pretty close the the miles you'd bring in there with the 9X multiplier.

At the 50-99K level at AA, you'll bring in 100% flight miles and 100% bonus miles based on distance. On paid first class fares, you bring in an additional 50% bonus on base miles. AA also has some promos out there right now for extra miles on a variety of fare classes, but for purposes of looking forward, where they might not be in play, probably best not to add those in.

One big difference between UA and AA is that all elites get on the domestic upgrade list at UA (which is very different than saying they all get upgraded). At AA, all elites get on the free upgrade list for flights under 500 miles, and those at the 50K level accrue upgrades (2,000 miles worth for every 10,000 flown) or can purchase upgrades, for flights over 500 miles.

Hopefully you can come up with some numbers with this and decide.

Are there other FFs that go from LAS to TYO on a regular basis? I fly Delta, but would I be better served by another airline/alliance?


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.
Upgrades, baggage allowance, award redemption rates

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.
Currently between 25-50k miles. All to Tokyo.

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

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

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

6. What is your home airport?
LAS

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

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Delta, only because I have never flown another airline into Tokyo.

Hey y'all and thanks in advance for the help. I'm new to the site, and I would really appreciate some advice regarding which FFP I should pick.

I'm starting my first job out of graduate school in January, traveling 90-100% of the time. They told me I should be domestic my first year and adding in international assignments my second year. I'll be flying out of Houston so either IAH or HOU is fine though I prefer IAH due to bad experiences with HOU.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Upgrades on domestic and international flights. I should have no checked baggage. Lounge access would be nice but I hear those are impossible on domestic only flights

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: I'll be flying out and flying in every week. So at least two flights every week.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Not sure, whatever clients will foot the bill for

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Complete freedom on airlines. Not sure on class of service. I'll travel mostly for work but will travel for personal during college football season

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Reply: Houston to ?????

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: IAH or HOU, but prefer IAH

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Reply: No status

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any

Hey All,

Hope you can help me choosing the right program for me!

So, I am trying to understand which airlines I should focus on. Let me explain my situation.

I am French but I live in SFO. I am going back to France once/twice a year but most of my travel during the year are within the US (LAS, LAX, NYC, SEA, etc...).

I currently have 48,000 miles on Flying Blue and my status is Ivory...
In the US, I have registered to the loyalty program of Virgin America, United & Delta.

I don't own any credit card yet and I have 50,000 miles from my French American Express that I need to "convert" to one airline/hotel program.

Last but not least I don't have any program for the hotels. If there are good synergies please don't hesitate to let me know!

Here are the answer to the questions:

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Upgrades on domestic and international flights. Lounge access would be nice but not the "priority"

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: I'll fly ~10 times a year. Always economy. I would upgrade in premium eco or Business when not too expensive.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Complete freedom on airlines. Not sure on class of service. 70% work 30% pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Reply: SFO to (LAS/SEA/NYC/LAX) and SFO to PAR.

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Reply: Flying Blue, Ivory, 48,000 miles.
United Mileage Plus: 8,060
Virgin America Elevate: 4,620
50,000 miles waiting to be converted in my AMEX.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

PS: Open to make synergies with Airlines/Hotels/Credit Card.

Thank you!

If you're doing a mix of last minute economy for business, as well as advance purchase economy for personal travel, you should refer to the answer I gave a traveler a few posts up. Until you know how many miles you're going to get from a revenue based program, it's impossible to tell you whether that's better for you than a mileage based program. Sort out what you've spent the last year, and how many miles you've flown, and that should point you in the direction of a revenue based program (Delta, UA) or a mileage based program (AA, Alaska).

Thanks Tom!

Are you referring to this post?

No, I was thinking of this post. Crunch the numbers and see who might work out best for you.

Thanks for the help very much. I appreciate it.
I did break out a spreadsheet and do some calculations based on what you recommended. Based on my numbers, if I would have standardized on AA, I would be at Platinum at the moment with several upgrades available.

It is good to know all the options out there.
i was not sure which Airline I should focus on since no airlines use San Diego as a hub (I think Southwest does, but i only fly them short trips to Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Jose). I was really looking to find an airline I could build status on, accrue miles to take my family on a vacation with.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers,

TCG

Well, with AA getting ready to announce program changes, just leaked, they're beginning to look a lot like UA. The main difference is no spending minimums for any tier and miles awarded based on spend, just like UA, so it will be a very different program come the end of the 2016 compared to what it is today. Just a question of what date they plan on making the changes. You'd probably be safe the first half of the year but the spreadsheet would look pretty similar to UA after the "date to be determined" in the second half of 2016.

Thanks Tom!

best strategy when starting extensive travel late in the year?
 

I traveled very little this year and currently have no earned airline or hotel status, but I'll be traveling extensively over the next year, starting around Dec. 1 (150 to 200 nights, minimum, in U.S. and Latin America).

Since most programs are based on the calendar year, December seems like a bad time to start traveling, but I have no choice.

What's my best strategy for the rest of 2015 and into 2016? Is there any point in getting and using airline and/or hotel credit cards and using those, or should I just try to rack up points on an Amex PRG or Citi Prestige and then reevaluate earning/elite strategy once 2016 rolls around?

Also, I know there are a bunch of hotel challenges/accelerators available, but what about airlines? Anyone heard of any?

Great site. Thanks for all feedback.

What travel in the next 6 to 8 weeks?
What class?
Any corporate travel pollicy? (airlines - routes - fares)
What airlines fly where you need to go?
What hotel chains where you need to go?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

One or two multi-country trips from New York to Latin America (Panama, Colombia, D.R., Mexico, possibly Venezuela). Likely in coach, unless I can find decent business-class fares (or if baggage fees would make the business-class fare a wash). No travel policy. All the majors fly to most of the likely destinations; probably staying at various IHG properties. Thanks.

you're prob sol for earning airline status in december, but that's not a big deal because earning status in january will give you almost 2 years status.

if you're stuck to ihg, you're also kinda sol for december as status is based on nights and not stays.

if you can go over to spg, you can get plat with 25 stays (ie one night at a different hotel), but you can also get gold with 10 stays, which would suffice moving forward into january, where you can knock off your 25 stays. i do not know about hhonors or marriott

just be sure to break up your stays, as iirc with spg, a single stay over 90 nights (need to check the exact number) would result in no elite status earning...at least with spg. read and understand the ts and cs.

so maybe you should go for low-tier elite with 2 hotel programs and do what you can to get low tier elite with 1 airline program. or maybe even just fly with various airlines and see which one you want to put all eggs in the basket with for 2016 onwards.

I'd look for credit cards that give you some level of status or other perks with the hotels and airlines you'll use. For example, the regular AmEx Plat charge card gives SPG Gold, IIRC Hilton Gold, DL lounge access and PP lounges. Some DL AmEx cards give DL lounge access, free bags, and a slightly higher boarding group as well as status miles and redeemable miles from total qualified spend.