Could do with some simple advice please...
 

Hi, I have just joined the forum, so please be patient with me! I apologise for asking this question, but wonder if someone might help. It looks very likely that we will be travelling to the USA on a regular basis pretty soon. This is for personal, not business, reasons and all flights will be at our cost and not a corporate expense! The reason is that our son is looking highly likely to accept a post in Tennessee, and it is equally likely that, whilst he may not stay in Tennessee permanently, he will make the move to the USA (from the UK) a permanent thing. We'd hope to visit him at least every couple of months (I'm sure he'll be delighted!), so are likely to fly to the USA at least 4 or 5 times per year for the forseeable future.

I'd like to ask if anyone can give a clue regarding:

- Most attractive "regular flyer" scheme for Economy Class travel UK / USA for 4 or 5 trips per year? I guess we'd like discounts more than upgrades (or both!)

- Because flights are likely to be at least one stop, we're happy, if necessary, to stay over in airport hotels and to "split tickets" if the overall cost is lower as a result. Is "split ticketing" something we can do easily and is it generally worth while?

- Is it worth getting an affinity card and, if so, which should I choose?

Thank you in advance of any replies, I really appreciate any guidance!

specific US/UK airports might be helpful.

Yes, I agree!

Ideally, Manchester / Nashville although any London outbound would do as well.

Thanks!

Welcome to FT!

- As far as which frequent flyer program might be best, we have a dedicated thread just for that very question:

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

- What credit card(s) to obtain? I'd wait and figure out your airline strategy first.

Thanks! I'll check that forum out.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If airfares are roughly comparable across the major carriers, you'll probably want to end up flying some combination of AA/BA/US out of either MAN or LHR. There is service on AA/US between BNA and about half a dozen U.S. cities with nonstops to LHR, and between BNA and two or three U.S. cities with nonstops to MAN.

As to which FFP to credit those flights to, a lot depends on what you'll want to use your accumulated frequent-flyer miles for. If you want to use them for award flights between the U.K. and BNA, then you should almost certainly credit them to AA, because you can redeem AA miles for travel on AA flights with no surcharges. However, if you'd rather redeem your miles for award flights from the U.K. to elsewhere in Europe when you're not visiting your son, then crediting your AA/BA/US flights to BA makes sense, as BA's "Reward Flight Savers" offer exceptional value for travel between the U.K. and the rest of Europe.

By split-ticketing, do you mean buying a separate ticket to get to Nashville once you've arrived in the US? If so, this is a bad idea, since if your first flight is late/delayed, you'll likely forfeit any carrier protection for a later connection. It's also unlikely to be any cheaper. Probably the best place for you to start is to fiddle around with some random dates and city pairs on something like www.kayak.co.uk to get a general idea. Manchester-Nashville is easily doable in a single day with a connecting flight; no need for an airport hotel.

Welcome to FT!

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Many airlines are moving to revenue based programs. Accumulating miles is becoming less attractive. If I were you, I'd first start with finding out the carriers on the route and the prices for the tickets. If I had solid choices, I'd look at the mileage programs next.

I like looking at flights on flights.google.com. Plug in Manchester/Nashville. We often talk airport code around here. Your codes are MAN/BNA. Then look at elapsed time for the total trip and the number of flight segments. It would be great if you could do the trip with just 2 segments. That's tricky, as Manchester doesn't have as many flights as London and Nashville isn't a major hub airport. Still, I spot a US connection via PHL. It takes 12 1/2 hours one way. US is merging with AA. AA has announced it will NOT be going to a revenue based program in 2015. This could be a good place for you to start.

I'd echo the advice to at least start with AA and avoid the revenue-based mileage accrual at least for a year if not more.

Thanks so much for all the replies! They've been really helpful.

Mike

UA is still mile based for European addresses. US/AA remains mile based for 2016 as well. By far, DL has the poorest award availability.

If you do not like connecting flights, note that UA has single connection service, MAN-EWR-BNA as does US MAN-EWR-BNA.

Return airfares for mid-January travel approx GBP480 on either carrier on a through ticket.

Note that DL also gives MQD waivers to those with legitimate foreign addresses.

Are you sure that US operates MAN-EWR? I would have guessed that the connection would be CLT or perhaps PHL.

Note, I wrote that UA operated MAN-EWR (as it does); US does not. US operates MAN-PHL.

In the post I quoted, you said that US does MAN-EWR-BNA: "as does US MAN-EWR-BNA." There's no MAN-PHL flight mentioned in the post I quoted above.