Hello all!

First of all I apologize if it is a wrong forum- please move the thread if needed.

I recently posted about my questions with use of SPG points (Hubby and I just got our new SPG cards with 30K bonuses, so we'll have a nice start with SPG). I do have miles with United and Continental as well (combined about 77K, and I have United Visa card), but I have decided to pursue SPG route for miles since looks like it'll be a better deal.

Now, my routing is only going to be PIT-FRA, once a year. I know it's not much flying... With that said, would it be better for me to join AA or stay withing Star Alliance? I would like to finally pick my FF program and credit my EQM's to it when I book tickets, etc.

Sorry if Im repeating myself, Im just trying to finally get things straight...

Thanks alot!

Others who know the ins and outs of spg and the various airline programs might know better, but my guess is that your best best is AA.

Unfortunately, unlike most airlines to which you can transfer spg points, UA and CO only offer 2:1 rates. (E.g., if you have 10,000 spg points you get only 5,000 miles.) Most other airlines offer 1:1. Another option within the Star Alliance is US, but it's a horrible airline and has the worst prospects for surviving, so you should steer clear of it. Lufthansa is yet another option, especially since you'll be going to FRA. But you can't get a credit card (and thus accrue miles for spending) for that airline, plus I'm pretty sure if you're flying economy (which I assume is the case, though you haven't said) you won't accrue many miles for your PIT-FRA trips, for reasons I detail below.

Which brings me to a related point. You're not clear in your post, but if I understand it correctly you aim to use your PIT-FRA trips to accrue rather than redeem miles. It might be a slightly different calculation of airline priorities if you aim to redeem miles to fly there. But in either event, you still bump up against the problem of the 2:1 transfer to UA and CO that I mentioned.

And, assuming that you see PIT-FRA as a means of accruing miles, be aware that, like Lufthansa, some airlines don't give full miles for low-price economy tickets. That is, if you buy the cheapest economy ticket to go PIT-FRA and assuming that route is about 7,000 miles round-trip, you might only accrue 3,500 miles or less.
I forget which are the better or worse airlines in this regard--I'm not sure where AA stands.

You didn't mention Delta, which is good. It's program is notoriously lousy for trying to redeem points. So you could pile up points with Delta and not be able to use them, or find that you have to use much more of them for free travel than you would with AA, UA, etc.

So, by default, I think you're at AA. But perhaps others can shed some more light on some of the matters I raised here.

By the way, here's the link for the spg page that provides the transfer rates from spg point to airline miles. Scroll down to "Transfer points to..." and then under the airline miles heading you can click to bring up the pop-up that lists the airlines and their transfer rates.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...ers/index.html

Hope this helps!

Thunderroad- Thank you alot for your input!

to clarify- I will be flying economy, and no, I didnt know that I'll be getting less miles for flying on cheapest economy. Oh, well, I guess, thats' all I can afford right now.
And thanks to FT I will be steering away from Delta. I did check out the spg site for tranfer rate, US and AA looks good with 1:1 transfer rate. However, from what I understand reading FT, US is really hard to redeem miles on.
I've read about a possibility of using US miles to get an award on Star Alliance partners, I dont know how good of a deal that would be, or if it'd be better idea than AA.
So, please any more advice is welcome!

Contrary to most, I love US and am overall pretty pleased with the service I get from them. As far as redeeming miles is concerned, I think US is the absolute best! Not for THEIR flights, but *A. If you factor in their set partner award chart (which, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty good) with the agents who 8/10 times don't follow their own rules - to your advantage, you can really make a some great itineraries and stretch your miles real far!

Just take a look at some of the US forums about crazy itineraries. I personally am about to fly (for 120k all in Biz):

PHL-LAX
LAX-BKK
BKK-ZRH-LIS
LIS-FCO
FCO-PHL

You're welcome! I hope that others can weigh in on the issue of whether and to what extent you'd get less than one redeemable mile for each mile flown in cheapest economy on US or AA. That's my impression, but I'm not certain. To find out for sure, you could call the airlines themselves or post questions about this at the AA and US forums here on FT.

I didn't know about US being tough for redeeming miles. (And, as you probably know, to the extent you can redeem US miles it need not necessarily be on US--it would be possible to redeem on UA, CO, Lufthansa or other Star Alliance partners.) My harsh comments about US stem from the horror stories I read here on FT and on the horrible experiences that my brother and mom have had flying them.

In my experience, AA is pretty good for redeeming miles, though of course as with any airline the further in advance you do so the better.

You need to get the SPG Amex card. Widely regarded as one of the best affinity cards. At least 1 SPG point per $, and 25,000 miles on "any" airline for 20,000 points.

My simple 2c suggestions, for sure no rocket science

Do a 20000 points transfer (wait to have them in case you are below this number). SPG puts an other 5000 as a gift.
19999 points ->19999 AA miles
20000 points ->25000 AA miles
23000 points ->28000 AA miles

If you can wait, wait for a promotional transfer.
I used already twice this approach with AA; the last one just 20 days ago !
For over 20K miles, a 35% bonus.
So 20000 SPG points -> 25000 AA miles -> 33750 AA miles after the bonus !

Thanks everyone for replying!
I did get an SPG card just recently with the 30K bonus after $1000 spend. Got it for both my husband and I with future plan to combine all the points into one account.
Volvic- thanks for your suggestion! That's why I decided to stick with SPG card vs. United card.
Thunderroad and Ariyo15- I like US,I have flown their economy a few times with my daughter, and I had good experiences. It's just from what I have been reading on here Im under the impression it's not all that good.
Would you recommend me joining US and using the miles withing Star or going AA route? That's one question I cant figure out for now.

Well, if you don't mind US, that does open up a range of possibilities...or a can of worms . Ok, I'll stop my US-bashing.

In terms of US versus AA, then, it might partly depend on what you'd use these miles for. Any sense of where you'd go with the miles you'd build up, and whether your award trips would be in business or economy?

I'd say AA but be aware that AA and BA have a funny agreement over transatlantic flights. You can earn/redeem only on their own metal.
With AA miles only on AA*, with BA miles only BA.

*it's a bit more complex, e.g. AA miles can be used for London-Canada (i.e. BA)-USA (i.e. last leg with AA). But with BA miles you can not redeem a direct AA TATL, e.g. JFK-Paris.

Volvic is absolutely right re the AA-BA relationship, but it could change since they've petitioned USA and European authorities to permit greater integration of their programs. I'm not certain where that stands, though I believe approval is likely in coming months.

Well,
I'll be using the miles I build up to go to Germany to visit my parents. We go once a year, and it is PIT-FRA (usually just me and my daughter that go), we will also by flying economy.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Unfortunately, your best option for accruing miles on a PIT-FRA-PIT paid ticket may not be the same as your best option for redeeming miles for a PIT-FRA-PIT award flight.

If you're primarily going to redeem for PIT-FRA award travel in coach, and if you are going to accrue miles primarily by charging purchases to your SPG Amex card, I think that you would be best off redeeming through Star Alliance. You have so many more single-connection options between PIT and FRA with Star Alliance than with oneworld: PHL, EWR, ORD, IAD.

As for which Star Alliance program to transfer your SPG points to, you do not have to make that decision until you are ready to transfer. If US is offering a 50% bonus at the time, that will probably be the way to go. If not, consider transfering the SPG points into ANA's program: ANA's awards are distance based, so a coach roundtrip PIT-FRA-PIT will only cost 43,000 ANA miles year round for most routings; you can fly on one or more Star Alliance carriers, mixing and matching as necessary; and you get free stopovers en route, if desired. (I am not sure how ANA's award fees/surcharges compare to other carriers'. Perhaps someone else can weigh in on that.) A downside to ANA, however, is that when you fly a Star Alliance carrier on a paid ticket, discounted fares will not earn full mileage credit on ANA.

AA is a great program, and is my main FF program. But you would pretty much have to fly to ORD or DFW for a single-connection to FRA, and if the availability is not there, you're out of luck for a single connection. On the other hand, depending on when you would be traveling, an AA award to FRA could be had for as little as 40,000 miles roundtrip during low season.

Perhaps the best advice is to play it by ear. When you are ready to actually book an award, check award availability on AA and on the various Star Alliance carriers, and then transfer your SPG points accordingly.

Do you have the US Air CC too? If so and you're flying coach they could make a good choice (5k discount). Otherwise AC would be a better bet. Cancellation / change charges on AC are $90 compared to $150 on US. AC is the only *A to offer 40k miles business class within North America.

good point....