For those that are following along, the revenue tickets for the end of the year trip have been purchased.

PEK <-> SFO on Air China
SFO <-> HNL on Continental
SFO <-> MCI on Continental

What frequent flyer program should I use to register these trips?

I currently have given my Continental number on all of these, because #1 CO miles don't expire and #2 I like the CO website better than United. I know not the most rational decision criterion, just being honest.

The ultimate goal is to be able to use these points at some time in the future, ideally for some upgraded transcontinental ticket to business class.

I'm pretty sure the Air China miles could be booked on Cathay Pacific. I currently have zero Cathay miles. Would these orphan miles be any use? I should be receiving at least 150k AA miles from AA credit cards, though don't think they could be combined with orphan Cathay miles.

Any advantage to use UA instead of CO? I'm not expecting to qualify for any elite status in the next two years with either UA or CO. That was the only consideration was after the merger do the CO qualifying trips transfer over to UA, though, like I said, I don't know if that makes much of a difference.

I'm assuming putting the Air China miles on Air China makes little sense, even though I already have 27k Air China miles and this would be about another 22k miles, or does it make sense to have 50k Air China miles?

Thanks for any ideas.

UA and CO already add together, and can be transferred from one program to the other for free.

On CO, all will count as "lifetime" miles, where they will not on UA ... That said, we don't know anything about the million mile program in the new system yet, so there are no guarantees it will be that way in the future.

Personally, the risk of orphaned miles is not worth the perhaps slight benefit from going with another program, and would put them all in CO - you can always go for a *A award on another airline from there.

Continental.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I definitely wouldn't orphan one flight's worth of points into a Cathay account.

CO points do not expire today but the program is ending on December 31, 2011 in favor of UA Mileage Plus (part of the merger) and going forward those points will have an expiry.

If you are definitely planning on putting the points into CO/UA CO is the smarter move thanks to potential lifetime status though if you are not regularly making elite status anyways that is less likely to be relevant.

stupid mobile site dupe

+1 ^

If you purchase a discount ticket, Air China only give 25% of the miles flew.

Asia Miles for Cathay is useless. It can only use for Cathay and takes a lots of KM to get an upgrade.

Post to Continental and American. Then book from them on any alliance partners (e.g., AA=>Cathay, if you like). Build your American legacy. And you already know to shift UA miles and book from Continental (no, it is the smart basic move) rather than United for as long as you can, not only for the convenience, but also because they don't "Star-block". Not yet, anyhow.....

I'm trying to book SFO to HKG, similar question, Cathay or United? I have BA miles (checked BA website and Cathay is available, but with $150+ fee + 25K BA miles) and UA/CO miles (32.5K + $2.50 fee).

Can someone with SFO->HKG experience suggest the airlines? I heard that Cathay's seats can't recline (for 14.5 hour flight?!) ?

Usually I go with UA, but this time CX is available via BA.com (which is quite rare for me), I don't know if I should choose Cathay over UA.

Thanks

My brother travels Internationally on business and is in the airline industry. He ranks Cathay as one of the World's top airlines and one of his personal favorites.

I may be jaded, but, in my experience, you get better service with non-U.S. carriers than you do with with them (with the notable exception of Air France, which I would never fly again after the worst experience of my life). I have flown Cathay once, Korean Air and Thai multiple times, and always thought I got better service. Then again, I fly a lot of Southwest quick hops here, where service is necessarily limited.

I have never heard that Cathay's seats don't recline, but check out SeatGuru.com to compare the seating options/limitations to be sure.

I don't see Air China listed on AA's site of partners where you can earn miles - http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/main.jsp

Where do you see Air China?

OK, great. Thanks for the responses. Sounds like most people also like Continental, so I'll keep putting the points there.

Another vote for Continental. Much easier to book award travel to Asia. My only complaint is their hub at EWR. It is the worst major US airport bar none.

I would say SKIP sfo-hkg on united unless you want miles. the IFE sucks- they dont' have AVOD- it's the old style (10-15 years ago?) single screen with whatever they decide to play at whatever time. i found that quite ridiculous for international economy. i don't know if continental flies from sfo-hkg...but the ewr-hkg route does have AVOD. the reason to go with cathay is the AVOD- and while the seats are fixed back- they have a sliding mechanism which allows you to 'lay' down...i don't like it, but it works for some people.

I would say CO>CX>UA

(i've done long haul on all three to asia in both biz and econ, and the only reason i'd take UA again is due to more miles via connection)