based in los angeles, best frequent flyer program?
 

sorry if there is a consolidated thread for LA, but i couldnt find it...

based in LA, fly to DC 4-5 times a year, 3-4 other flights to various places in the States, and a couple overseas flights to Asia as well as Europe. priority on lounge access/gaining status quickly..

thanks in advance!

I don't think the guidance for you will be any different than anyone else.
The only nonstop to DCA is Alaska, so you can credit Alaska, American, or Delta.
Depends where you primarily seeing yourself going in the US otherwise. For the West Coast, Alaska and United will cover pretty much anywhere you need to go. American and Delta also fly to a ton of places from LAX, but nonspecific.
If you'll be flying out of non-LAX LA area airports,
Delta has the best inflight service but worst mileage redemption, though Korean Air and Alitalia are underrated rewards partners.
American has the worst inflight service IME and also the least valuable lower tier elite status, but good partners, and unclear what will happen moving forward.
United has mixed flight experiences and a glut of elites in LAX, but excellent redemption opportunities.

Collect AA miles and Ultimate Rewards points (transfer to united). With both these programs you can get to Europe and Asia easily.

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"The only nonstop to DCA is Alaska"

This is no longer the case. AA now offers nonstop service from LAX to both DCA and IAD.

Thanks, forgot about that.
As for IAD, there are several carriers on that route: AA, United, and Virgin.
Also, Jetblue does LGB-IAD, AA, United, and Southwest do LAX-BWI.

Just do United or AA. I would normally push harder for AA, but who knows what will happen post-bankruptcy and post-merger.

I've been an AA frequent flier for years out of LAX (actually I'm half way between LAX and SNA). There are a couple of problems. Some of the connections for the Super Saver awards really stink. Also, they don't have very many FF seats at the low levels, particularly around the holidays and they get booked within minutes of being released. For those reason, this year I've been using SWA quite a bit thanks to some nice credit card bonuses and I have been really happy with how easy it is to redeem miles for direct flights. I had not flown SWA in years before this year and now I'm a fan. Unfortunately that doesn't help you with Asia but I would not put all your eggs in one basket.

Being based at LAX really makes you think about where you will fly and redeem?

I have AA lifetime status and do fly most of my eastern-US business trips with them (NYC/WAS/MIA). The in-flight experience is just ok but I think AA provides the best upgrade chances because everyone below ExPlat has to choose when to try and upgrade (burn stickers) vs. just automatically being in the queue? But the downside of AA is the limited award choices (i.e. BA has tons of Europe routes, but also heavy surcharges). I have ended up redeeming UA miles for most of my vacations (Europe x 2, Caribbean, Thailand, South Africa) the past few years due to far better award availability.

I was able to get to Brazil and back using AA miles (though had to do a 1st Saver vs. Biz) and 1/2 of my award travel to Russia this past summer (3 J seats). And I had 3 J awards to Europe reserved for this holiday season before deciding to go to South Africa instead. So you can find awards, it just takes being flexible (and often a willingness to connect via DFW/JFK). I am hoping we have better award availability with AB and MH going forward.

My company prefers AA and I have lifetime gold, but if I was starting from scratch I have no idea whether I would choose AA or UA? AA's future is uncertain, and Star Alliance provides so many more options to use your miles. But then you read all the posts on the UA FT forum and mostly feel good about being with AA.

On top of the AA/UA debate I mainly fly Southwest for SFO/SJC/LAS/PHX because the schedules are so much better. And then Delta ends up having a bunch of odd non-stop routes where they are the only carrier -- I have ended up earning status several times the past few years without intending to.

Does DC mean just DCA or are IAD/BWI options? I am from Maryland originally and fly back there 2-3 times per year on personal travel in addition to work. Usually take Southwest to BWI with the family due to no change fees, but have also taken Alaska/United/AA when the fares are better. If you really want DCA then it points towards AA or AS as your program. But if you are open to all of WAS then it does not really matter.

One other data point is that I just had to make a program focus decision for my 2 year old now that he gets his own seat. I signed him up for AS. Most of our family travel is to WAS or ATL, so he can use one mileage program for AS/AA/DL. But that decision was purely about consolidated mileage earning. He will actually come close to having status this year, but that was not a factor in choosing his frequent flyer program. I also had to open WN and UA accounts for him.

For lounge access, highly recommend you invest in an Amex Platinum Card. Gives you lounge access to Admirals/Skyclubs when flying AA and DL and entry into a bunch of other International clubs via Priority Pass. US Airways Club access anytime means you can even get away from the chaos in Terminal 1 before your WN flight. And there have been several occasions when I used the Priority Pass to go into another lounge vs. the one I had access to with my flight -- for example last month being able to head to the Air Canada lounge in Terminal 2 before my Alitalia flight because the Air France lounge was a zoo.

Virgin America serve LAX quite well, and give a very good points return for short-hall flights. Status perks aren't so good as the mainstream airlines, but the basic quality of service is better IMO, so they balance out. If you're not going to be able to make it to a high loyalty level in UA/AA/Alaska, you may wish to consider them. Of course, some are speculating that they're in trouble and may collapse as an airline. I guess we'll just see.

Agree with AA and UR as backup for United option.