Need Advice
 

Hi guys

I travel to India every other year and I have 17,000 miles on Continental and American Airlines. Now which one should I fly more on to accumulate points so I can get free ticket faster? Do they have any offers to increase points and what should I do to accumulate the points quicker?

Also, last year Delta matched miles with 100% bonus miles when purchased. Is Delta or any other airline doing it this year so I can go to India with a better seat or free seat?

Thanks in Advance.

i would avoid personally avoid delta...

aa would be a good option....you can also get miles posted to your aa acount if you are flying with jet airways in india....

So should I try to gain points on Continental or AA? What are some good quick cheap ways to gain points on each airline? Why should I avoid Delta? My mom bought miles for $1800 last year and Delta matched the miles 100% now they are matching it 50%.

Hi jamesbondc,
We need to know a bit more about your situation before advising you on the best FFP. Usually, the following info is required to make a good assessment:
1. Location/Home Airport(s)It really helps to know a bit more: ?
2. Flying Frequency: you indicated once a year to India, any fight travel?
3. Destinations: you indicated India once a year, any others?
4. Primary program goals: you indicated free flights (as opposed to elite status and certain specific upgrades, which for some people are more important that free flights)

So I think we have only about half of what we need from you.

Just to start off, you picked two of the best FFP programs: Although plenty of travellers complain about aspects of those AA and CO airlines, their loyalty programs and reward travel opportunities enjoy pretty positive reputations. Given that both programs are pretty good, I would simply do some checking at travel sites to see which airline usually has the cheapest flights from your home airport to your destination city in India. Then stick with that program, you are much better off staying loyal to one than spreading it out over multiple airlines.

As for fast point earnings: other than flying, certain credit card sign up bonuses and miles per dollar spent are the fastest way to build miles. If you are disciplined about CC use (and by this I mean you pay it off every month without fail) then you should definately consider some kind of mileage earning CC, and then put everything, and I do mean everything, that you possibly can on it. In addition to my purchases, I have six of my monthly recurring bills hooked to my CCs. Once you pick your airline loyalty program, then do some research to figure out the best CC for you.

Forgot to answer this question: Because it is so dang hard to actually use those points. Most FTers are really down on Delta because of the lmited redemption opportunities and high redemption costs for the gazillion miles they handed out. There is an interesting thread here entitled something like "Which airline is the stingiest for rewards": Delta is getting the verwhelming majority of the votes in that thread. Take a read at the first few pages, people lay it out pretty clearly there.

To snag some AA miles, get a Citibank Aadvantage card and buy some dollar coins from the US Mint to meet your minimum spend requirement. Here are a couple FT threads about this. The first one is a "sticky".
Link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...in-thread.html
Link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-shipping.html


You can also get 11,000 AA miles for playing games on Bing.com. They take a while to post. There is a FT thread about this "Live Search Club -earn up to 2500 miles on various airlines ". Link is: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newre...e=1&p=13652684
Good Luck!

1 TPA to DEL

2 Once a year or every other year.

3 India for domestic I don't really fly

4 I want to get free flight but if I can upgrade to business class with my 17,000 points I am cool with that too (In my dreams right?).

OK, at least I figured out why you have 17K miles in both CO and AA programs. You flew TPA to ORD (Chicago) to DEL one year on AA (possibly hitting DFW along the way) and some similar route on CO a different year, right?

Your round trip mileage earning, given the pattern you state, will remain a consistant 17K a year. We can work with that. I will give you some advice on how to maximize this in the AA program since I am familiar with it. Someone else can chime in on CO. Let's assume for the sake of discussion that you settle on AA as your preferred FFP. Things to consider:
1. Before you book tickets to DEL next time, read up on AA's Gold and Platinum elite challenge. Apply for it, pay for it, then book, then fly. The PLAT challenge only requires 10K miles flown within a 90 day window. Your 17K round trip to DEL will jump you immediately into the Platinum elite status, which you will keep for up to a year, hopefully long enough to take advantage of during you next DEL trip.
2. Look into a credit card that gives you a sign up bonus for AA, and AA mileage earning based upon spending on the card. Two examples: The AA Citi Master Card, and the SPG AmEx. You should only get these cards if you are very disciplined about paying off your CC bill completely every month. Getting the Citi card provides 30K miles after an initial $750 in spending, and a subsequent 1 mile per $1. The SPG card provides 10K miles for signing up, the opportinity for an additional 15K miles if you spend $15K within six months of getting the card, and a very nice potential for 1.25 miles per dollar spent. PUt everything, and I meand everythign on these cards, including recurring bills, and then pay them off every month. You will rack up miles quick.

I don't know your financial situaiton, so lets just look at an example: Suppose you can find enough monthly bills, plus gas and grocersies and every day expenditure such that you will put a little over $30K to per year on your points earning credit cards. So this month you apply for and receive your AA Citi Master Card, and do the initial spend to get the 30K miles. Next month you apply for and get your SPG AmEx, and shove all your expenditures onto this for the rest of the year, barely cracking the $15K within six months goal, and about $20K. by the end of the year. You also do your annual trip to India, with the Platinum challenge in place. At the end of one year, you will have added the following miles to your account:
17K AA miles for the round trip to India
30K AA miles for the AA Citi Master Card
1K AA miles for spending on the AA Citi Card
10K SPG points for the initial sign up bonus for the SPG AmEx
20K SPG points for the $20K in spending on the SPG AmEx
15K SPG points for meeting the $15K spending in six months bonus

You can convert the SPG points to AA miles, with a free 25% bonus for every 20K transferred. So you end up with:
98K AA miles
5K left over SPG points, which you will save for the next 20K batch transfer to AA.
Platinum Elite status on AA

Thats enough for almost four domestic round trip tickets in coach, but you could also look at redeeming them for you next international trip.
Now start adding in some other bonus opportunities, like double miles earning bonuses, sign up bonuses for establishing a Citibank checking or savings account, etc etc. Lots of things you can do. Hope this helps.

Cant apply for the cc yet because I am a college grad without a job so no annual income would not look too attractive on my cc application to AA or CO lol. But do let me know how to gain miles on CO also. If I get lucky and get a job I might wanna apply for cc's. Thanks yall.

Definitely visit their site frequently and watch out for OnePass News & Offers. Last year I was able to get a silver status thanks to double miles promotion for the trip to Lima. So keep your eyes open for destinations that are of interest to you!

Now my mom wants to fly business class to India using Delta skymiles. I think it's 120,000 miles to get free ticket. Currently Delta has 50% mile bonus offer going on so what I am thinking of doing is: get her to buy 60,000 miles so she'll get total of 90,000 miles and then I will buy 20,000 miles and get total of 30,000 miles. I will then transfer my miles to her and she will have total of 120,000 Delta skymiles. After taxes and fees it should cost me around $2,800 for the business class ticket. Is this a good idea to do it or is there a better way?

Based on recent reports, I was under the impression that Delta charges 120,000 miles to fly coach between Kansas City and Atlanta.

But seriously, you should be very careful when assuming you will be able to find awards at the most advantageous levels with Delta. I'm sure you would be very upset to find out that after spending $2,800 for miles you are not close to getting a business ticket to/from India.

Slow down there! :)

You need 10K EQ Points, not EQ miles to make PLT on a challenge.

The cheapest fare will only get you 0.5 EQPs, which would require 20K miles flown.

There is also a sliding scale for the duration of status earned during a challenge. FOr instance, if you earn it now it will expire on 29 FEB 2011. If you can hold off with the challenge until 16 June 10 status will be good until 28 FEB 2012.

Why June 16, 2010, and not for example June 31?

That's like asking why income tax returns are due on April 15 rather than April 30 -- because those are the rules.

And if you really were going to wait until June 31 to start a challenge, you'd be waiting a long, long, long time. ;)