Hi everyone, I have some travel coming up and I wanted to start focusing my travel into ways I will get the most rewards. A bit of background. I am based out of NYC and have access to a number of airlines. My future vacations will tend to be international. Greece/Turkey, China, Japan and maybe back to Argentina/Brazil. I currently am using a Chase Freedom card and also have the capital one venture card. My goal is to the chase sapphire preferred in Jan as well as the Ink bold so I will be building up a number of miles in my UR account which I can transfer to specific carriers. I also tend to use Avis for car rentals and know that I can accumulate miles from those rentals as well. My question is given my goals which FF programs would be good to join. Also, which hotel programs would be ideal. I am trying to map out a plan that I can follow over the next few years to make sure that any travel I do undertake will benefit me in the long run. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

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For award travel to China, Japan, and South America, AA is a very good program, as AA flies to all three areas (with nonstops from JFK to Brazil, Argentina, and Japan), and also partners with CX, JL, and LA. AA's program is weaker to Greece and Turkey, because BA -- which flies to both -- has surcharges for award travel on its flights, even when booked with AA miles. One particularly valuable feature of AA's program is the free, North American "gateway" stopover. For the cost of a nonstop award flight from South America to JFK, for example, you can fly to JFK, stop over there for weeks or months, and then continue on to another North American destination -- including Hawaii or the Caribbean -- for no additional mileage. Of course, with the AA/US merger, there may be changes to the AAdvantage program in the near future.

I tend to credit my Avis and Hertz rentals to VS (Virgin Atlantic), as even a one-day rental can earn 1,000 VS miles, with no frequent-flyer fee charged by the car-rental company. (Miles credited to a domestic FFP often come with a frequent-flyer surcharge, which diminishes the value of the miles earned.)

Well my 2cents would be for United - though guv1976 makes a good case for AA. Here's my logic: For your Turkey, China and Japan trips there are direct flights with Turkish Airlines, Air China and ANA. Greece requires a stopover but there are multiple routing options on Star Alliance partners. Your South American destinations are covered direct by United it self. Someone else with more international flight experience up front could chime in on the First/Business class quality comparison between these partner airlines but I normally go coach to maximize my distance anyway. Whoever you decide to go with - I'd add their branded credit card to your wallet for both the signup bonus and also the flight perks - United has first bag free, priority boarding, double miles on ticket purchases, etc. and the others are similar I'm sure.

Agree with above. I would start with
United for Europe and Asia, ESP since OP has some chase products.
AA for South America coupled with a CITI card.

And then see what I am more happy with.

If I have the most miles with US but am going to Europe next summer, is there a way to transfer it over? That United card also sounds really nice. Could someone elaborate on why the Chase cards are good with United as well? New to the game and eager to learn, thanks!

I'm not sure what you mean by "transfer it over," but here are some comments. If you have enough miles on US (60k for RT summer travel; US does not offer one-way for half-price in miles), you can use the miles now to book award travel to Europe next summer on US, UA or other *A partners (LH, LX, OS, AC etc.) as soon as awards can be booked. (June is available now, as are the first few days of July.) You cannot transfer the miles to UA or combine them with any miles you have in UA's program. Your ability to use the miles for award travel on UA and its partners will end soon, however, as US gradually merges with AA and shifts its alliance membership.

The situation with AA is different. US miles cannot now be used for award travel on AA and its partners (such as IB and AB), but that will change in the near future. At some point, the AA and US programs will be merged. Your AA and US miles will automatically be combined at some point, and you may have the option of combining them sooner.

Hi,

Looking for some advice/guidance on which Frequency Flyer Program I should go with. I'm based in NYC, so I can fly out of JFK, La Guardia, or Newark and I have some travel planned, mostly international to Paris, Italy, London and one to Hong Kong. I don't do a lot of domestic travel.

I'm starting from scratch so I don't have any previous miles or status from any other airline. I have points from Amex and Chase Sapphire that I can transfer over. I'll want to use any miles accrued for upgrades and award redemptions to Business class.

If you were me, which FF program would you sign up with?

Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

I have added your question to a very recent discussion of the same topic. Please scroll back to review the previous posts.

American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards have only two airline partners in common: British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways, yet both programs can provide award travel on any airline which belongs to the three international alliances: OneWorld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance. It's important to understand how alliances work when earning and redeeming miles to avoid having small rewards balances scattered across several programs.

One important question is what you plan to use the miles for once you have accumulated enough of them. For your purposes, AA or UA would probably be best. In judging between the two, remember that US is currently a partner of UA, but will be merged with AA in the coming months. DL's program is generally considered weaker than the other two, because it is much more difficult to find award seats at low rates on DL.

I think it's worth considering Delta a bit too, specifically if you're going to be flying domestically with some frequency on certain routes. For instance, although low-level award availability can be a bit limited on DL, they do have a mountain of flights to say, MSP, something the other airlines do not have. Of course, the medallion levels are saturated between two such hubs so upgrades are hard to come by, but your ability to get between the two places paired with the impending status changes may make DL a bit more appealing.

I agree that United is the best program to have FF miles on. There is always plenty of availability, you can get almost anywhere, and they have generous routing rules.

That being said, American could be very beneficial since you can book your hometown (NYC) as a stopover and build a free one-way into any itinerary.

NYC is a great place to live for a frequent flier (and for many reasons)... Happy to hear from another flight enthusiast living in the city!

I'm based in NYC and have similar travel goals to yourself. I opted to go with United for the reasons outlined above. I'm not sure how AA will look after the merger and I didn't want to really risk it.

I always prefer AA. They are really advantageous over any other frequent flyer card.

Call me crazy, but you should begin collecting miles/points first and ask questions later. Since both AA (One World) and UA (Star) offer tremendous possibilities out of NYC, stop thinking one or another and do both. Citi AA cards have 50K bonus for personal and 40K for biz and can be churned right now (it won't probably last long). UA has 50K bonus for both personal and biz with a trick that's easy for many people. Don't forget the US Air 35K bonus; US Air is in bed with Star now but will migrate to One World soon. Apply for best Chase Ultimate Rewards cards (CSP, Ink Bold and Ink Plus), and you'll get 140K Ultimate Rewards points transferable to United among other partners. Get these for starters and you are set for a pretty long time.

However, let me tell you all right away: being in NYC, it's becoming harder and harder to meet spend requirements. So if you despise paying for the privilege of using plastic make sure you can handle the spend.

Actually it is a good idea to ask questions ahead of time to develop a strategy. While your advice about cards and carriers is solid the problem is that many people can't apply for all the cards at once and therefore have to pick and choose. I have elected to concentrate my earning with Star. The reason being is I have been developing a credit card relationship with Chase and I do not want to have my earnings spread out over a number of programs when I go to redeem. That being said after I have gotten the cards I am targeting CSP, Ink Bold/plus I should have enough for my trip. Then I will start over again and will target whatever cards/programs are best at that time. By focusing on a specific program it allows me to get the miles I need for my trip much faster than if I had points all over.