When to expand to a second frequent flyer program?
 

Hi all,

I'm sure this has been discussed on FT somewhere, but I can't seem to find the thread.

I'm curious when it makes sense to expand to a second frequent flyer program. I'm fairly new to the world of miles and points, and I've been focusing my efforts on AA and Hilton. However, I see that the United Explorer card promotion ends today, and I was thinking about applying for that.

Since I only travel a couple times a year, do you think it's better to concentrate on one program or does it really not matter?

Thanks!

Depends what you are aiming for.

If you e.g. try to achieve status it is most unlikely to keep a higher tier status at two or more airlines unless you fly a lot (best paid premium cabins). Since you do not seem to be that kind of person:

If you're just looking to collect miles it doesn't matter too much as long as you collect enough miles over a reasonable amount of time to make use of them. You want to choose a program where miles do not expire and probably only one program for each alliance (*A, OW, ST) to bundle your options.

Having miles in different alliances also gives you more options to use the miles as some regions are better served by on or the other alliance.

Or alternately, just be good at tracking expiration dates and knowing how to extend them.

The nice thing about United is that it can be really easy to pick up miles there without actually flying on United (which can be unpleasant even by the rather low US legacy carrier standards). You can literally get United miles ordering a pizza since Papa John's is part of the Mileage Plus X smartphone app program. And that pizza counts as account activity in terms of resetting expiration dates.

Thanks so much for your input! I don't know that I fly enough to maintain elite status so maybe I'll go ahead and try the United Card, especially if it's simple to earn points.

As a leisure flyer, it's better to have miles in a few programs. That gives you flexibility when one airline has better availability or rates than another.