Your FF program history
 

I guess this is how you end up with well over a million BIS miles - but all on different programs. I change my program when it is advantageous to do so, and generally fly that airline as my preferred carrier. Here's my sequence for the past 25 years or so (by primary carrier):

AA -> TWA -> NWA -> UA -> BA -> UA -> AC -> TK

Wondering if FT'ers are more loyal or less loyal. Early reasons for changing were primarily due to where I lived at the time, later were mostly due to program changes

I started out in 2005 on VS, mainly because it fitted all my long haul travel and all my short haul was on LCC's. I got VS gold two years running but started to change my travel patterns and could see me losing status, so I contacted BD and asked for a status match. They obliged and I spent the next four years as a BD*G until BA bought BD from LH, when my hard-earned *A status was turned into Avios. I have a long-standing issue with BA, so I asked NZ and TK for a status match. Both obliged but I started piling all my travel into the NZ account. Sadly, I got 800 of the required 810 points to retain Gold and NZ wouldn't comp me the rest (not surprising really as I hadn't flown their metal all year). At the moment I am trying to get some sort of status with LH as I fly with them most often, while in the meantime using the TK*G to get *A privileges.

So, in short: VS gold -> BD*G -> BAEC gold -> TK*G and NZ*G -> LH M&M

I'm really happy with TK at the moment, both as a passenger and as a frequent user of their lounge at IST. I haven't tried to redeem any miles yet, but I understand that can be problematic. At the moment still burning hundreds of thousands of UA and AC miles.

I was a Continental OnePass member from middle school onwards. Obviously i've seen been folded into United MP. I also maintain BA status and few years low level AF status until I vowed never to fly them again (whenever reasonably possible to avoid doing so). So I guess

CO->UA->UA, BA, AF->UA, BA

Oddly enough, I've never once been on any AF flight, nor ever passed through CDG in a lifetime of flying. Can't think of any other major European airline I can say the same about.

Please follow the thread as it moves to the MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I think the million mile benefit can keep some people loyal to a particular airline.

I would say FTers can be more loyal or less loyal depending on the circumstances. If we feel like there is better total value in another program (which can mean many different things), then most of us would jump ship.

Been with American since 1992 and never switched.

Haha, well, you are at DFW...

And I'm at SFO, a UA hub, and have switched from UA to AA.

More specifically, have been a UA 1K for the past 20 years. Then maybe eight years ago also became an AA EXP (rough equivalent of 1K). Starting next year, will just be an AA EXP. Why? UA has just gone way downhill in way too many ways since its merger with CO.

I've hopped around as various projects have been in various cities, with USAir as my fallback program until they practically abandoned PIT a few years back

I've been top tier on CO (client in Houston), AA (client in Dallas), Southwest (don't even remember where), and 2nd tier on UA (also don't remember where, but I have the card) while accumulating 2M BIS miles on US.

Today, I'm a bit of a free agent - hoping the US/AA merger brings me lifetime PLT on AA and some additional capacity out of PIT.

I was with UA when I started out in 2004 then when I stumbled on FT and found out about Starnet blocking moved to US. Now I am back in bed with UA.

Shows how out of touch I am with respect to the American market - I didn't even know that about US and PIT. I had some interviews at Westinghouse in Monroesville one year and remember paying a paltry sum to upgrade to first class on US. This was back before FF programs really took off and they had some sort of promotion where you could pay like $50 or so to upgrade to first. Those days are way, way, way gone.

I gave up on UA when they were extremely rude to my wife and actually made her cry for some reason I've long since forgotten. We would only fly them TATL and for awhile (maybe it's still that way) they just seemed to put the most abrasive, do nothing FAs on those routes. I did fly them again last year though and thought the experience wasn't too bad.

I just got into the game in 2008. Knew I would be flying a lot and off I went.

1. AA. Did a PLT Challenge and was EXP within 7 months.
2. CO PLT. Status match of EXP
3. FB Gold, Status match from AA PLT, during soft landing phase of my AA status.

I may land a job in the next year that will get me back to the top of one program or another.

I'll jump off track and talk about Hotels too.

1. HH Diamond. Earned as a conference planner in 2000. Did a Visa/Stay 3 nights challenge in late 2011 for Gold status. Now a Silver.
2. SPG Platinum. Did a challenge in 2010, stayed 48 nights that year. Am now a Gold on stays. Will be a PLT on stays by mid-August.
3. IHG Platinum Elite. Had the in-laws coming into town and hotels were expensive, but I was able to buy enough points at a much cheaper rate to put them up and as a bonus was granted Platinum status.

I was with TWA for a long time.
I then transitioned to AA (remember "More Room Throughout Coach?") after the merger/buyout.
I then was with NWA for almost 10 years before the Delta takeover (I still miss the ease of NWA award booking).
I have now been Platinum on Delta for the last few years, but as a leisure flyer their implementation of MQDs has me comparison shopping - maybe back to AA.

TWA->AA->NWA->DL->???

I started out almost only into AA but that's waned. I've gone in terms of priorities:

2002: AA
2003: AA / HP
2004: UA / AA
2005: AA / UA / HP
2006: AA / UA / US-HP
2007: AA / CO / UA / US / NW
2008: UA / AA / US
2009: UA / AA / DL
2010: UA / DL / AA
2011: UA / DL
2012: DL / UA / AA

Well before I started with FT, I was very agnostic about flying out of SEA:

HP, WN, AS

Eventually got elite status on AS.

Then I learned more, and started playing the game, buying miles (or converting) on arbitrage. So now it looks like this:

AA, UA, WN, US, BA, VX, VS*, IB*, AS, (still elite on AS)

Right now I actually have more *A miles in UA/US than AS miles (thanks to me cashing out about 200,000 miles in the past year on AS, plus 45,000 AA miles).

I'm pretty agnostic on who I will fly in the US, thanks to AS elite status. I will get reasonable room in coach on AA/DL/AS, occasional upgrades on DL, more than occasional upgrades on AS. But I've actually flown UA and US in the past year without elite status :eek: and lived to tell the tale. ;)

*miles through Hilton ;)

CP, then AC pretty much exclusively till a little over two years ago when I discovered United flew the same transborder and overseas routes at half the price.

Said buh-bye to AC last year and went with Delta for transborder, and DL/KLM/KE for my overseas travel. I bite the bullet on domestic and use WS ... no real FF program there, but they're generally cheap enough my savings constitutes enough of a reward.

I still like AC, and as a Canadian citizen I would prefer to support a Canadian business ... but they're simply no longer competitive. Nice product, but not worth the considerable premium.

1985-2007: Almost strictly UA. 1P for most of the early 2000s.
2007-2010: CO. Mainly Plat.
2010-2013: UA again, due to merger. Plat/1K.
2013: DL. Did status match to Plat, due to better routings and wifi. Also, without having US part of *A, UA became fairly worthless for me.

Started flying TWA in 1991 and achieved Royal Ambassador status (I loved that you could get free upgrades for both domestic and International segments

In 1993 my wife and I started flying Continental because of their great Elite benefits. I loved the transcon flight where I used to get upgraded nearly 100% of the time.

I started out with NW, LH, CO, and AC (no strategy really, mostly signed up because I happened to take one of their flights). Made elite in AC but switched to UA in 2000 because UA was employer preferred airline. Matched to AA, DL, AS at various times but ultimately decided to stay with UA because of better redemption possibilities and *A partnership airlines like LH, TG, AC, etc. which better fit my travel patterns.

Disappointed with the new UA but I'm not traveling much these days for business, so having 1MM status is liberating and works out well for personal travel. When UA is competitive price wise, Im happy sending my $$ to Smisek, otherwise I just travel LH, AC, AS, HA, DL or whoever offers the best option.

Started with my first job in 1981. Based in DTW so flew mostly NW. In 1984 took a job in ABE that required a lot of travel, continued to fly NW to Asia and Europe but US domestically. Eventually became CP on US but abandoned them for UA when their product went to hell. Was 1K on UA for many years and used them almost exclusively until I retired.

So for me,

NW->US->UA