Howdy folks. I could use a few pointers from the more seasoned vets here, and possibly from folks in similar shoes.

I had given up on FF rewards programs and associated credit cards some time ago because it seemed that every time I wanted to do something with my miles I'd have to jump through hoops to do so. I had the AA Advantage Citibank card for awhile, but I remember having so many restrictions on travel dates that I just couldn't deal with it. I've also accumulated miles on various airlines, but again it seems every time I want to use any they've upped the mile requirements or something similar making it a less attractive program.

After reading up on various people's successes with FF/CC programs, I've come to the conclusion I'm not approaching it correctly or simply don't know how to effectively game the system.

Here's a little background on my situation. My wife is Vietnamese and the majority of her family still lives there. Since 2004 I've traveled to Vietnam at least 15 times on various airlines including: Cathay Pacific, Eva Air, Japan Airlines and Singapore Air. I have not done the route through Korea on Korean Air or Asiana, but that's another option for me too and as far as domestic airlines go, I believe United flies to Ho Chi Minh City.

Currently I have the most miles on Eva's FF program and prefer that or Cathay since the layovers in Hong Kong and Taipei seem to be the most efficient.

Being that my ultimate goal is to earn reward tickets and/or class upgrades for flights to Vietnam, can anyone recommend a frequent flyer/credit card rewards program that would fit the bill?

First, welcome to FlyerTalk, fauxfive55.

It would have been better if you'd made your subject more specific by mentioning that you are apparently only interested in flights to one destination (Vietnam). That is very specific, and most FF/CC experts are not likely to have experience with that specifically.

The general FF expert opinion is: FF miles are great if you are flexible about destinations, not just about (though also about) dates, carriers (within an alliance), routing, etc. For a more common example, FF miles don't tend to work well for those who think they can use them to take a whole family to Hawaii over Christmas vacation.

FF miles are an "excess capacity" currency. Airlines don't give away seats unless they think they will go unsold. If you want to go where there is ilmited service, or where "everyone" wants to go, and then on top of that you want to go when "everyone else" wants to go (say, during the times that kids and their teachers are off from school), you're a lot less likely to find FF seats than if you select a new route (which not many people know about) to a new destination (for the airline you collect FF miles with) and then are fleixble about your booking.

They tend to work better for people who want to fly to different destinations, who can say "ok, I can't get an award to this place this year, let's go soeplace else this year where I can get an award, and then let's try booking 11 months out for next year or the year after to this place".

So can you book 11 months ahead if that is what it takes? Can you be totally flexible about dates, or are you trying to syncrhonize with partilcular events (either here or in Vietnam) which restrict your dates?

By the way, many airlines don't allow you to upgrade from anywhere near the lowest fare. A few (like AA) use co-pays instead (and allow you to upgrade from any fare). But if it's upgrades you're after, you have to figure out which ailries that you're considering they're even "affordable" to you at. And remember, you can never upgrade (except perhaps on "full cost" fares) on any airline's metal other than one you have FF miles on. So, for example, I'm pretty sure you cannot use Eva's FF miles to upgrade on Eva's partners, only on Eva itself. Thus you cannot use the flexibility of booking with different partners for upgrades, only for outright awards.

(Having said that, I knowing nothing about Eva, and little about any other Asian carriers. I did once fly a business class award LAX-HKG on CX booked with AA miles booked about 10 months out, and it was great. But other than that I've never yet been anywhere in Asia that AA doesn't fly its own planes.)

Thanks for the lesson, I needed that and it sort of confirms my suspicion that in my case, FF/Rewards programs are more of a pain in the ... then a benefit.

My wife typically wants to visit her family during the lunar new year, or in Vietnam, Tet. Like you said, you can probably forget award travel during those dates.

We're very specific on destination and timing... I wish we were more flexible, but I knew when I got married, flexibility on travel went right out the window!

If anyone else seems to work the route to Asia that I specified with any luck, please let me know!

You might want to look into "points" based credit cards. These aren't tied to a specific airline, and you accumulate points or miles, but then use the card's website to book travel with your points. Basics are that $1.00 purchased equals from 1-2 points/miles. Each of these turn into $.01/.02 of a ticket price.

So for example you spend $40,000 on the card, and receive 80,000 points. After a while when you're ready to redeem you can book a flight to anywhere and if the fare is $1400 you can use 80,000 in points to reduce the cost of the fare by $800. The flight will now cost you $600. These types of cards don't offer the absolute best redemption values but can help in certain situations.

Look into:

Capital One Venture 2 points per $1
Chase Sapphire Preferred 2 points per $1

Sadly both of these cards just offered a chance at their biggest sign up bonuses ever (100,000 points=$1000 in flights), so it might not be the best time to go for them. That said there are other cards out there that allow more flexibility (AMEX Member rewards points I believe also).

Since you're not flexible enough with dates/destinations, etc to fully utilize a FF program (although you should still make sure you're earning miles for all of your paid flights anyway), consider getting a credit card that gives you points instead of miles, and then lets you use those points to purchase airfare. Chase Sapphire Preferred is a good card for this ($95 / year annual fee), Venture One Capital ($85 / year, I think), etc. I think with both of those cards, you also get a little bonus when you redeem the points for airfare.

I think the best FF program for you is UA/CO. Both Eva miles and Asia miles expire after three years from the month the miles are earned. To get a coach award ticket to SGN on Eva, you need 100K miles for normal season, 150K miles for peak period, which covers lunar New Year. And it requires 110K miles to get a free coach ticket to SGN on Cathay. It is not efficient for earning award tickets on Eva or CX.

For UA/CO, you only needs 65K miles, and I can see available awards now for, for example, SFO-NRT-SGN or SFO-ICN-SGN, around lunar New Year next year, using continental's website. With UA/CO miles, you can redeem miles for flights on Star Alliance partners, like ANA or Asiana. So it is not as difficult to get award tickets as you think if you plan ahead.

If you purchase tickets, UA also has flights connecting in Hong Kong, which should be efficient too. So you might want to see if you can put your Eva miles in use first, then start accumulating miles on UA/CO. You can get credit cards, with big sign up bonus, that earn or can be transferred to UA/CO miles, like the upcoming UA Mileage Plus Explorer, CO Onepass Plus, or Chase Sapphire Preferred card. You might also consider getting the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card for the 75K bonus and transfer the bonus points to CO miles before their partnership ends by 9/30. After that, you can transfer Amex MR points to Aeroplan, which allows you to book award ticket on Star alliance too for 75K miles.

Also, you can use UA Mileage Plus shopping website for online shopping with any registered credit card to earn bonus miles, which helps accumulating UA miles faster.

So i would suggest you check out the Continental website for award availability and see if it makes sense for you to accumulate their miles based on your need.

Another FF program to consider is Aeroplan. Aero miles expire after 7 years from the date miles earned, and it takes 75K miles (vs 65K UA/CO miles) to redeem for a coach ticket to SGN.

You can credit miles from purchased tickets on Star Alliance flights, like UA/CO, ANA, Asiana, and Singapore, to Aeroplan. The Aeroplan online search tool shows award availability on more flights, including Singapore airlines, which are not listed on continental's website. Even if you want to redeem UA/CO miles, the Aeroplan website is a good tool to check award availability.

You can earn Aero miles faster by using an Amex Premier Rewards gold card, which earns 3x on airfare, 2x on gas and groceries, and at lease 3x on shopping via Amex Bonus Mall online. MR points can be transferred 1:1 to Aero miles. Or you can get a Fidelity Amex card, which earns 2 WorldPoints for every dollar spend, and has the option of converting WordPoints 1:1 to Aero miles. You also earn bonus points by shopping online via WorldPoints Mall.

If the goal is to earn free tickets, accumulating Aero miles might be better than UA/CO miles in terms of earning ability on credit card spending, as long as you can accumulate enough miles and use them before they expire.

Well, then, you have only one chance, maybe, but only if there's a US-based carrier that flies all the way to Vietnam. Is there?

Here's the reason why: With all US-based legacy carriers, you can get the "last" seat on any plane they fly by using only double miles. You may think that's a lot, but compare that to those point programs that everyone talks about: They charge more and more and more points as the cash price of the fare goes up, with no limit (and often going way beyond double for "last" seat points awards).

But no carrier that I know of has these double-miles-for-the-last-seat awards on partners, only on their own metal.

Which is why you need a carrier to get you all the way to Vietnam on their own metal, who has a double-tier structure where the top tier means you can get the "last" seat.

I said US-based carriers, because those are the only ones I'm aware of that have double miles for "last" seat awards. But if there are any foreign carriers that also have that, then I guess you could look into those too. But again, you'd have to fly that carrier's metal all the way from home to Vietnam for this to work.

Again, your only other option I see possible is booking 11 months out. Since you know the date and destination every year, is that possible? (The idea is that at least sometimes on some carriers, the moment they open seats at 330-360 days out, that's when they are most likely to make a couple seats avialable as awards. Though of course nothing's guaranteed. And you may need a subscription to a tool like www.expertflyer.com to monitor that...)

Really, I have to say SPG Amex again. The flexibility, as well as the 1:1.25 transfer ratio make it worthwhile (as well as the other Starwood benefits, but they're not the focus here).

I would concentrate on getting all the Continental Airlines miles you can before its merger with United. See my post of 7/1/11 on the What's New page of my website below to see how to go about doing this. Then I would cancel any Continental Airlines card you have just before the merger, then wait for the best United Airlines card offer after the merger in order to get another bonus. Both are Star Alliance carriers. That alliance should have no trouble getting you to Vietnam or most anywhere else in the world.

Unless you have strong allegiance to one alliance or airline (i.e. elite status), SPG would still remain the best option because of the flexibility- the ability to convert to so many airlines, meaning you can get the best award for your miles (e.g. VN is joining Skyteam, but you can't redeem on them if all you have are CO miles).