Best program for NYC-LAX
 

Hi All,

My fiance and I will be doing a lot of flying between NYC and LAX over four months (One of us will fly every other weekend: 12-15 flights). Does anyone have a suggestion for a good frequent flyer program? The two we've been looking at are:

Delta Reserve
Travelocity

Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Welcome to FT!

Are you looking for a credit card, or a frequent-flyer program? Neither Travelocity nor Delta Reserve is a frequent-flyer program.

If you plan to take only nonstop flights between JFK and LAX, look into the frequent-flyer programs of the several airlines that fly that route.

What is your primary goal in joining a frequent-flyer program? Redeeming for free flights (if so, to where and in what class of service)? Upgrades on your paid tickets? Free checked baggage? Lounge access? Depending on what is most important to you, the recommendation as to which program to join will vary. Also, will you be buying the cheapest Coach tickets, Business Class tickets, or First Class tickets on your paid flights?

Thanks for the quick response!

Ideally, I was looking for a credit card and frequent flyer program combination. For example, the Delta Reserve gives 2x miles on delta purchases. If I understand it correctly, you get the miles for travel (roughly 5000) + 2 times the ticket price in miles (roughly 350x2 for the cheapest coach).

In terms of tickets, we will be buying on the cheaper end of the coach tickets (either deep discount or discount).

In terms of benefits, I think we're looking for either free flights (between LAX and NYC) or upgrades on paid tickets.

Welcome to FT!

As the previous poster said, recommendations may vary greatly. Assuming you want to minimize out-of-pocket ticket expenses and maximize mileage earning potential, I would suggest the following:

- If your credit will bear it, open Citi AA credit cards which give you 50K points each + $150 statement credit. Each of you can get 2 cards, giving you 4 r/t tickets each.
- If that's not an option and you have to buy the tickets:
- If earning status is more important, stick with one airline, as 5 economy r/t tickets should give you low-tier status
- If you plan to redeem for short-haul flights, consider the British Airways FF program, as it has favorable redemption rates (including its partner, American Airlines) and allows you to pool mileage with your fiance.

Hopefully this will help get you started. Others will surely chime in as well.

Looks like you will be able to make DL gold medallion with 12-15 round trips. Delta Reserve is interesting if you can spend $$$ to get the 5,000 bonus MQMs.
I would advice to stay away from UA since their program has been devalued massively and are currently in a state of meltdown.

Delta reserve
 

I believe the delta reserve costs 400$ (but give lounge access for that).
United explorer will give 2x miles for united flights and is free for the first year +25K miles (you may find more miles on the explorer card). I find more 25K awards available on UA then DL (with UA you can also use your miles on Usair). If you prefer to fly to EWR instead of JFK then UA is a better bet then DL. You may also want to look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card which earns 2x miles on Airlines and Dining. You can use the points to buy airfare directly (on any airline) or transfer them to the UA or BA (for AA flights) frequent flyer program. If I did not have a bunch of credit cards I would go for the Chase Sapphire preferred.

AS frequent flyer
 

With Alaska Air frequent flyer program you can earn miles on both DL and AA so that would give you a little flexibility with prices .

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"Looks like you will be able to make gold medallion with 12-15 round trips."

If I'm reading the OP correctly, neither he nor his girlfriend will be flying 12-15 roundtrips each. Rather, that's the number of roundtrips the two of them will fly combined. And given DL's rather poor reputation for offering award travel at low redemption rates, I would avoid DL's program.
If the OP were not going to fly on deeply-discounted fares, I would consider flying UA and crediting the miles to Aegean. After one roundtrip, he would have Star Alliance Silver status, with free checked baggage and priority boarding; after four roundtrips, he'd have Star Alliance Gold status, which would add free lounge access, even when flying UA or US domestically. (If the OP is willing to fly US and connect somewhere, even deeply-discounted fares on US earn 100% mileage on Aegean.)

Another vote for DL on this route. Once your upgrades kick in, the best front cabin transcon service of ANY carrier.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ne-10-yrs.html

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How easy is it for low-tier elites to score upgrades on the JFK-LAX-JFK route? And won't the OP only achieve low-tier status towards the end of the four-month period anyway?

OP could consider AA Plat Challenge but as Guv noted that route is a tough UG on all carriers.

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OP: can you clarify how many roundtrips you personally expect to make over the four-month period? Will you be flying every other week, or will you be flying every fourth week? It's a little unclear from your post, and the answer could well affect the recommendations. Also, how much flying (and to where) do you and your girlfriend expect to do after the four-month period?

Good point. Never mind... unless there's other travel we don't know about.

Personally, I'd pick UA on this route just because you have the p.s. flights out of JFK (which are good for non-elites because the entire cabin is E+) supplemented by often cheaper options out of EWR. I find EWR-SFO not too bad for upgrades (paid premium traffic tend to fly p.s.), especially when it's served by 757s but as a Silver the chances are slim at best. I don't often pay for premium cabins on these flights so I usually end up going EWR-SFO.

My second choice would be DL due to their good C product on this route and I'd put AA in last although their FFP is pretty good.

Umm, I'm a DL elite who flies LAX-JFK often (not primarily), and upgrades are NON-EXISTANT for GMs (50K) and lower. If you're PM, you might get lucky. Even DMs (125K) sit in the back. I've missed upgrades during the most inconvenient days/times and by a lot. Also, Skypesos are USELESS.

I vote AA. Lots of good service on 767-200 wide bodies rather than 757s with DL and UA. Decent amount of service. Once you hit GLD (5 RTs), you'll be eligible to use upgrade stickers to get into J (saving your miles). I've seen empty seats in J on AA flights I tracked, and elite competition isn't as difficult as DL PLUS, AA's low tier elite status is still the most decent of the 4 legacies. AND, their miles are worth something. Partner this with 2 Citi cards and you'll be good to go.

Also, their award availability for LAX-JFK is amazing (in all 3 classes) so if these are personal trips and you're looking to defray costs with miles, that'll help a lot.

You may also want to look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card which earns 2x miles on Airlines and Dining. You can use the points to buy airfare directly (on any airline) or transfer them to the UA or BA (for AA flights) frequent flyer program.

Welcome to FT! Given the priorities you're stating, Cavill, I second the AA recommendation. It offers the best opportunities for upgrades and redeeming miles for award flights. In my experience, much better than UA's deteriorating frequent flyer program or DL's already lousy one.

Plus, as someone else posted, if your credit rating is ok you and your fiance could each get an AA credit card with 50K miles for some level of initial spending. In fact, many folks get two such cards each, one Visa and one American Express. That's a total of 100K miles for each of you. Together with the miles you'd accumulate through your flying, that could be enough to fly you both overseas business class for your honeymoon.

I recommend AA as well. Check into a status challenge at the AA section. I've cleared upgrades as a mid-tier on that route at 'bout 80% rate.

Thanks everyone! This is very helpful! I'll take a look at the recommendations but the AA credit card sounds like it might save us a lot of money and the AA challenge seems like it might get us to a status faster since it's such a short hurts of traveling.

To clarify a few things:

1. We will each be making about 6-7 trips personally. Thus, if there are any programs that let you combine that would be better. We can make all major purchases on a single credit card.

2. This year, outside of these trips, we will probably each fly 2-3 different places (e.g, Colorado, Florida, England).

It does not cost anything to join a frequent flyer program, and you assume no obligations by doing so. I suggest that both of you join the programs offered by American, Delta and United at this time. It will, however, be to your advantage to concentrate your travel on a single airline to the extent that this is possible.

The credit card is a different matter. If you wish to concentrate on AA, there is a credit card offer available with 30,000 or 40,000 bonus miles if certain conditions are fulfilled (see the separate thread for details and up-to-date information). I obtained such a crad last fall (no annual fee for the first year). I received 30,000 miles when I charged a total of $750 to the card, and will receive an additional 10,000 if I charge $5000 within the first six months. Purchase of AA tickets earn 2 miles per $, and I have a $100 credit if I buy a ticket on AA within a year of when the card was issued. You may not receive the same offer, but there should be something of this sort available to you.

From someone who has flown the same exact route as the OP for many many years, I would say that you should focus on multiple frequent flyer programs, namely AA and UA (if you can bear flying into EWR). Why? So that you have options in terms of pricing and flight availability.

For AA, like someone had suggested, those 767s have plenty of "couple" seats (2+3+2 seating is great) and service is not bad. Getting both Citibank AA credit cards (50K miles each, or has the offer been devalued a bit?) is what you really need to do to maximize your miles.

For UA, get their credit card for 50K miles (really can get 60K but that's not worth it) and the Chase Sapphire Preferred (50K points transferred to UA as 50K miles). That's 100K miles with very little work (easier than AA)

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British Airways' frequent-flyer program offers "Household" accounts, that allow pooling of miles earned by more than one member. BA miles are very good for nonstop award travel on AA within the Americas, and BA does not charge a close-in award booking fee that most U.S. programs charge their non-elite members. But BA is a poor program to use for redemptions between the U.S. and Europe because of the high fuel surcharges that BA assesses on TATL travel on any carrier. (The one exception is redemptions on EI between the U.S. and Ireland.)

All of that said, there's little need to pool your miles if you are going to be flying AA or UA primarily. Each of those programs offers one-way awards.