Hello, I'm getting into the airline miles game and I am based out of St. Paul / Minneapolis and will be using MSP which has flights from major airlines from all 3 alliances.

The goal for my miles would be international trips to every year or 18 months for my wife and me. Occasionally we will travel domestically for weekend trips but will be paying out of pocket rather than using miles.

Some of the trips we would like take would be Prague, Costa Rica, Italy, Japan.

So the question is which airline reward programs should I focus on?
Should my wife and I be together on our program or create individual accounts?

We will be taking advantage of credit card offers after we close on our mortgage.

Thank you for you time and responds.

Here's my brief take on the three major programs:
As you probably know Delta has the largest presence by far but their miles program is considered one of the worst by some people.

AA has very little presence and you'd have to connect nearly everywhere you go, even domestically but can be good for international redemptions if you plan ahead.

United is considered by many to be the most generous when redeeming miles within their Star Alliance network. I also feel like they have the most mile gaining options via credit cards because of Ultimate Rewards by Chase and also Chase's United card.

Well Delta will be far and away the easiest for paid domestic travel out of MSP. But their FF program sucks. UA offers good award redemptions, especially internationally on their star alliance partners. But unless you are flying exclusively to the mainline UA hubs (ORD, EWR, IAD, IAH, SFO) you will be doing lots of connecting through ORD on your domestic travel.

I generally have good experiences redeeming DL miles for both domestic and international flights, also being based in MN. But I don't recommend them to most people. It takes me a LONG time to find award seats using various sources.

My suggestion would be to concentrate on UA miles or programs where you can transfer miles/points to UA, like Ultimate Rewards. Connecting in Chicago is not a big deal if you can find low level award seats vs. flying with DL but paying tens of thousands more miles.

I am in the same boat as you op. I have already acquired the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to use for our international airfare and plan to apply for the Starwood card to use for hotels abroad.

For domestic travel we plan to wait till this fall and apply for a couple of the Chase Southwest cards with the 50k bonus intending to qualify for a companion pass in early 2014. It sucks that they dont fly direct to Vegas from here but if its darn near free I can put up with it.

What do some of you more experienced members think about my plan to wait till fall to apply for the SW cards even though they are available with the bonus now? Am I doing the right thing by waiting to maximize the time the companion pass would be good for or should I just do it now?

Definitely go with UA. Much easier to redeem.

I'm also in MSP area. I use United and American for awards. I think both are good.

Thank you to everybody for your feedback. I had a feeling it would of been between UA and AA.

Though I'm still curious if my wife and I should be together on our FFP or create individual FFP?

Most FF programs (including AA and UA) won't allow you two to share an account; you'll each have to create your own.

This is helpful, thank you ^

As a MSP based flyer:

AA is best if you travel to Latin America. They cover everything. Their mileage program is still pretty good. As an airline, they can really be frustrating. Flight availability at MSP is hit or miss, such as their small coverage MSP-MIA. Wanna fly to Paraguay, Bolivia, then AA is your airline.

UA is best for Europe if you want direct US-Europe flights. UA program is also superior if you travel to Canada. 25,000 mile award reservations from MIA to Calgary. Try buying that ticket! Downside is UA has shrunk MSP to DEN, ORD, EWR and IAD to all regional jets

DL is infinitely frustrating. If you like Amex, then you may tolerate it more. If money was no object, fly DL and enjoy the direct flights. One way redemption SUCKS! If you travel to the upper midwest, Montana, then DL is your best bet. The KLM connection is great, vastly superior to changing planes in Paris.

You can also try Alaska's program, you can earn them on DL and AA flights.

There is also Southwest..teehee...if you only want to go to the US/North America.

Broaden your travel destinations beyond Costa Rica, Prague and Italy. Just because you have heard its nice or saw it in a movie, does not a great vacation make If you go to CR, you will meet lots of Minnesotans.

Adam

UA is a solid choice to Latin America, both through its ORD/IAH hubs and - especially - on the *A partners Copa and Avianca. Copa flies nonstop from ORD to PTY; from PTY, you can connect virtually anywhere in Central or South America.

UA still flies mainline jets MSP-ORD. But it is true that United increasingly relies on RJs to nonhub airports (such as MSP).

We got married in Italy so we would like to go back for one of our anniversary. But your absolutely right about all Minnesotans wanting to visit CR and Prague and my wife is from MN and more set on going to those places

That is true, but there are now some days of the week where MSP-ORD is all RJ. For example, today, june 23.

Adam

I'd go UA. Ability to redeem awards on UA is now far ahead of AA, IMHO. Three years ago I would have put the two as near equals from a redemption perspective, but not anymore.

United miles give you access to the whole Star Alliance without any junk fees that I'm aware of. Not true with AA and Oneworld...

Where advantages start tipping in AA's favor are at the 100k elite threshold. AA EXP's are generally a happier bunch than UA 1K's. But from a lower elite tier perspective, I think UA is far ahead of AA at the current time.