LAX Based Flyer- Seeking Advice!
 

Thank you for those taking the time to read this post. I'm a avid traveler who had to take a pause over the last couple years complete my medical residency in anesthesiology. Fortunately I'll be completing my training this year and I'm looking to get back to one of my greater enjoyments in life – travelling. I'll most likely be move into Los Angeles and having LAX be my primary airport. I anticipate that I'll be flying about once every four to six weeks (LAS, SFO, NYC, MIA) with two international trips a year. Fortunately I will have a sizable increase in my salary so I anticipate that I will spend a couple thousand dollars hey you're on airfare. I've done plenty of research on the different credit card combinations, churning and whatnot however I'm still have a tough time deciding how to approach this. I'd love the idea of the crew and enough points over the year then being able to treat me and my fiancee to a business class flight to Europe or Asia.

I currently have the chase trifecta (CFU, CFF, CSP), BILT, and Amazon Prime and I've done good work with these cards. I should add that my biggest expenses are food, rent and travel, even while I'm in residency.

Is airline status really that worthwhile at LAX? I know I'm never gonna be flying and we're spending enough to obtain top tier status, however would be nice to have free checked bag and the convenience of priority boarding and booking more desirable seats in economy (C+, MCE, etc). I I sort of like the idea of getting a united club card and using chase points to pay that off. Just a thought. I could also see how getting into the Mr. and delta world could be appealing as well although the amount of annual fees between Amex and delta seems a bit daunting.

Once again I appreciate everyone who's read this post I'm happy to try and clarify if there's other questions. I suppose there is a blessing and curse to this being such a vague post however I'm adding exciting time of my life and would like to hit the ground running as soon as I finished residency.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

We really need to know a little more about your upcoming travel (class of service, how often on a long-haul route, total amount of money to be spent on airfare in a year, etc.) in order to be able to advise of the likelihood of your being able to achieve even low-level elite status. Tell us more, and we can then do the same.