Hi all. New to the forum. Please forgive the newbie questions.

I've been flying for many years, but have never been diligent about earning miles or keeping track of where they go. I want that to change, but I also value simplicity and thus want to strike a balance between number of mileage programs and earning potential. However, I'm not sure where to start, so I thought I'd ask here for help.

From my understanding, I should be able to get away with one mileage program on each of the three airline alliances (Star alliance, Oneworld, and Skyteam). My home airport was Detroit when growing up, so I have had a Delta Skymiles account for quite a while, and in the past it's been the only one with any consistent activity. However, I now live in the SF Bay Area, and often fly out of SFO and use United, so it seems like I should get a Star Alliance account. I typically go on one major international trip per year, and about two or three more domestic trips. Usually most flights are on United or Southwest out of SFO, and one flight is on Delta to my parents back in Detroit for the holidays.

Here are my questions:
1 - Should I get a United MileagePlus account, or an account with some other Star Alliance member even though I'm likely to fly on United the most? For example, I've heard that Alaska Airlines and US Airways have good mileage programs (though I don't know any details), so should I enroll with them instead and send my United mileage earnings to those programs?

2 - I have a US Airways account with 10k miles in it that just expired. Is it worth paying the $50 to reactivate it, perhaps so I can combine it with miles from my upcoming holiday United trip? I know there's also a pending merger that would switch US Airways to Oneworld. How should that affect the decision?

3 - What mileage programs should I use for other alliances?:
Skyteam: Even though I have had a Delta Skymiles account for a while, I recently redeemed a ticket and thus would be fine abandoning the account and opening another Skyteam partner account if it makes more sense.
Oneworld: Should I stick with my British Airways account? I never fly British Airways. Or should I open an American Airlines or other account?

4 - Should I get any credit cards? I significantly prefer 1.5%-2% cash back cards for my spending since I deeply prefer actual cash to arbitrary airline points, but I'm willing to open an airline credit card if it doesn't have an annual fee and will help me out in some way. For example, can I simply charge a dollar or two per year on these cards to keep my miles active?

Thanks!

Current miles:
United: Not enrolled
US airways: 10k expired
British Airways: 12k
Delta: 17k
Jetblue: 0
Southwest: 1k

Just skimming your post (short on time)

Skip Skyteam unless you absolutely cannot avoid flying them. Miles are too difficult to redeem.

$4: take miles/points over cash back. Think about it..You'd have to spend almost 1/2 a million dollars to get a $7,500 dollar biz ticket at 1.5%.

Welcome to Flyertalk! I see a great deal of reading in your future.

1. For most people, United and Alaska do have good programs. But generally, you can not "send" or transfer your miles wherever you want. You can, within alliances and partner airlines, credit mileage for flights to your choice of partners, but only on some fare classes.

2. Only if you plan to earn more USAir miles - any amount of US miles under 25K is of very little use. Redeeming USAir miles is not straightforward or simple. Set aside some time and read the first post and last few pages of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...ad-merged.html several times. Or find a blog post you like on redeeming US miles.

3a. What pricesquire said.
3b. BA Avios are great for many routes on AA or AS within North America. AA miles are much better for most international destinations. Lots more reading here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...vios-beta.html and on many blogs.

4. Only you can decide if you should open a credit card. My wife and I have opened 30 cards in the past year and earned 1.75 million miles and points, as well as some cash back, while paying less than $200 in annual fees. The retail value of our redemptions so far (670K miles) based on the coach price is over $14,000. But we want to travel and have 2 kids that we want to see as much of the planet as possible with. If you want to keep things simple and only occasionally travel, you might want to consider http://www.barclaycardarrival.com/pr...&cellNumber=24 which gives basically a $400 bonus and 2.2% back toward travel, or 1.1% if redeemed for cash back. Nearly all miles earning cards have no fee for the first year, and cancelling after 11 months is no problem. For miles expiration concerns, check out this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-merged.html which is United-specific but applies to all the major programs. Earn a mile or spend a mile using the airlines' dining or shopping programs, and you are good to go for another 18 months or more.

BayAreaResident Welcome to the forum

These threads may be of interest. Sadly many request get unanserwed
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

What is your flying pattern (routes & class) ?
What are your aims with a FFP ?

You have too many FFP's if flying only a few miles per year. With small account balances you are at risk of losing the miles due to no activity. There are threads on how to keep accounts alive, with non flying activites. Best to stick with 1 OneWorld and/or 1 StarAlliance airline and/or 1 Skyteam and/or Alaska: no more than 2.

Alaska is a good FFP. They have many airline partners as here http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx
BA is good for short haul awards, but high cash YQ surcharges on long haul.
AA has lowish miles needed for redemptions compared to QF / BA, and very little in cash co pay (YQ fuel surcharge). But check cash co pay carefully.
What will happen with prposed US airways - AA merger/takeover is unknow. You may/may not end up with AA miles.

Depends much on what you're looking for. If you're just looking for cash back on the regular travel you already do, not really my cup of tea but I would think you can just keep a United and Delta account, or whomever you fly with in the future. With only a few trips a year, focus on one isn't going to get you much status, but you might get low level and free bags.

If you want to get into it more for using those miles, are you looking for biz class or coach? Domestic or Int'l? Single or family of 5? Those kind of things will help you decide on what programs to join and how to handle it.

If you're willing to get in to the hobby in more depth, read the info here and on the blogs. But beware the blogs as they will not give you all the bad side of cards and they will pimp whatever card gives them the most commission. So always compare blogs with flyertalk with friends opinions etc., and buyer beware.

Anyway, long story short, I'd go with United, Alaska, Delta and American to start. Maybe Southwest too if you fly them at all. And sign up for awardwallet or something similar to keep track of your miles (although I have to manually input some accounts on there nowadays). I would not reactivate US airways, you can buy their miles for super cheap sometimes anyway.

Hobby ? More of an addiction

Good point

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Since it never costs anything to open a frequent flier account, you should have one even if you only rarely utilize the services. There are some (free) sites that can help you track your mileage/expiration dates (such as Award Wallet).

There is no ideal FF program. Each has its pros and cons. For example, Delta miles don't expire, and you can earn them easily, but they can be *very* challenging to use. Avios also don't expire, but redemptions are distance based, and BA charges very high fuel surcharges to fly on their metal. UA allows one-way awards and tends to have good availability, but a lot of people complain about their service.

As for credit cards, I used to want to keep the cold cash, but have found much better value in biz redemptions on long-haul flights. However these considerations will vary based on your own preferences and ability to travel.

Good luck with your new avocation!

My opinion is different than most of the others posted. Hopefully it will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered:

I don't think you should bother with any of this.

There are only two types of people for whom the active pursuit of mileage makes sense, and you don't seem like either:

(1) Those who have a low income level and could thus never afford to travel well otherwise.
(2) Those who enjoy some element of it as a hobby.

For everyone else, there is a higher financial and/or emotional payoff to investing the time elsewhere. Say you really invest yourself heavily into FF miles, keeping up with FT and booking complex award tickets. Your "return" on that effort, above being a completely passive earner, might be $5000 in real cash value.

Could you earn $5000 more investing that time into your career? Could you derive $5000 of value spending that time with your family? Or a hobby you actually enjoy?

I'd suggest you sign up for one program per alliance - whichever is easiest, so likely UA, AA, DL. Credit every flight you fly into whichever will accept it. If you end up redeeming miles later, think of it as a pleasant accident. Maybe, at the most, stop by FT every few months and sign up for whatever credit card deal is hottest, that matches one of those programs.

Otherwise, put everything on a 2% cashback card and be thankful you didn't waste your time.

+1
But the OP might just be at the beginning of his points/travel addiction.

If I had it to do from the start and lived in the Bay area, my advice would be to enroll in United MP, then get the basic Chase credit cards (explorer, sapphire and Ink) to fill up the mileage tank. OP might fly enough to get silver elite status, which would be better than nothing. Granted, United and mileage plus have a lot of negatives right now, but you cant beat the route network from SFO and the frequent flyer program is very easy to use.

From there, start flying, build up your mileage balance (by using shopping portals, getting other credit cards, hundreds of other ways - whatever your tolerance is for this stuff), and read flyertalk and the blogs, where you are bound to find someone who has similar goals in terms of travel (mommy points on boarding area is great for beginners). If you enjoy the hobby, it will grow naturally.

I would also probably pay the 50$ to keep the US air points alive, and get award wallet to have one place to keep track and maintain points/miles in your other programs. Good Luck!

If you have someone you travel with a decent amount in the US, I recommend you take a look at Southwest.

With some planning and effort, you can get to 110K points in a calendar year and get the Companion Pass, and that person will travel with you for free for up to 2 years.

Thanks. This resonates quite a bit.

To do one micro optimization to your suggestion (UA, AA, DL), would you use Alaska air instead? I know there are advantages to both sides, but you have correctly identified where I'm coming from, so I'm curious what you'd recommend for my case.

Although it's not something I do, using Alaska could be a good choice for crediting your AA and DL flights. Keeps the mileage in one central location and there are good values to be had using their award chart.

The best microoptimization, by far, is to put yourself on a credit card signup schedule. There's a sweet spot to a quarterly schedule and, since you haven't been playing this game, there are plenty of high-mile offers floating around for you. You could consider putting into your calendar a FlyerTalk day, say every 3rd Friday, where you allocate a few hours to reading thru the open threads on the board, picking out one high value credit card, and signing up. Then spend the next 3 months using it as your everyday spending card to meet the signup minimum.

This slow of a schedule is almost guaranteed to have a positive impact on your credit score and should return over $500 in value per signup.

Actually I think 10k US airway mile is quite valuable. Since you only need 20k to fly round trip if you are US airway cardholder.

If you don't want to spend $50, I remember someone mention that you can redeem around $1 to buy a magazine to make your mile active.

The spend $80 to $100 to buy vanilla card to get to 20k US airway to get a roundtrip. Not a bad deal to me. Of course just my 2 cent.

United would be my choice.

Since the OP doesn't seem to have a huge number of miles, I would recommend A3 as a good was to earn *G status.

More info here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aegea...need-know.html