Time to divide and conquer on different airlines / alliances with spouse?
 

Hey friends,

So my wife and I are both UA elites (she is Gold, I go back and forth from silver to gold).

Was looking at the new UA mileage plus program and got a tad frustrated. It spurred on this question.

Should a couple split their allegiance to get the benefits from two different programs? Is there an advantage to being on the same? Seems to me splitting would allow us more options on awards, plus both of us would be benefits on both (when traveling on the same PNR with spouse).

I think its time???

I think it depends a lot on which airlines you fly when, how often you fly together, and very little on the UA MP changes.

Get credit cards from multiple airlines and get many of the same benefits as those low elite levels offer.

(your FT profile says you are UA Plat, your post says you go back and forth between Silver and Gold)

Do you always travel together?
What airlines do you use or plan to use?
What level are you planning on achieving?
What benefits are you looking for?

Impossible to answer without knowing a great deal more about your travel patterns.

Sorry for my delay!

We almost never travel together. We are both Gold's with UA. I wondered if switching would give us more options for award travel using those points or Chase UR points.

If you never travel together, what benefits do you plan to get from a spousal program? I can understand a one program for each airline alliance, preferably one that you can transfer credit card mile. For us, one *A program does not accept our Chase miles so we have a second *A airline program for that purpose. We started with *A and gained status, then shifted to SkyTeam as our needs shifted and have now have status with them. For this years flights we have two elite programs to choose from. I can see spouses building status with separate programs (connected to Chase), then choosing from multiple program options for joint award trips. So are you ready to travel with the spouse?;)

The problem is that you frame your question in terms of elite status, which is a waste of time unless you know the specific benefits you are receiving on the specific routes you typically take.

If you care about redeemable miles, credit cards, etc. then you should stop worrying so much about which airline you are flying and start looking at frequent flyer programmes that match what you want to actually do for reward flights!

i.e. you can fly United all you want, but if you credit to a different *A programme you might find it easier to earn status and will get far more bang for your buck in terms of the value of miles earned.