Mexicana Air Frequenta club. Joined 1990. So much for that

TWA 1993. Was living in MCI at the time, dating someone who lived in STL. Still remember my first award booking STL-LGW/CDG-STL. Miss TW.

I joined AAdvantage on 29 Feb 1988, but I know I was in the TWA and probably USAir programs before that. (I don't recall if Piedmont ever had a program before merging with USAir, but they were pretty much the only choice out of RDU in the mid-80s.)

AA card says 1986 and SWA card says 1998, but pretty sure I had a Delta card cc 1983 that is long gone. Prior to 1983, I flew Hughes, Frontier, United and American before they had programs.

This article published on Valentines Day 1988 mentions:

Delta in 07 when I learned on this forum you could get thousands of free miles from Bing, emiles, e-rewards and My Coke Rewards. I earned enough to fly my son home RT from Army AIT in Georgia for Christmas one year. Now he lives out of town and I actually earn them from flying to visit him. Too bad Delta has quit all of these programs.

My favorite award from TWA was at 50,000 miles, which incuded all of these:

One free First Class ticket anywhere.
One free First Class upgrade anywhere.
One week of a rental car.
One week at a hotel (can't remember which chain).

Of course, First Class didn't include flat beds at that time, but I do recall the chilled vodka and caviar was a good prelude to the fresh swordfish which was grilled onboard the L-1011.

Those old TWA awards were insane. I didn't get to take advantage of any of them, but living in KC I know quite a few people who did!

Got signed up by my dad to Canadian Airlines and Air Canada Aeroplan in 1998 ahead of our trip to Australia, both got merged later into Aeroplan.

There's really 2 questions here:

1. When did I join my first award program? That goes so far back that it's hard to remember, probably 25-30 years ago. I think it was Holiday Inn Priority Club (now Intercontinental Hotel Group). My kids were small, and that made it quite difficult to travel for lengthy periods. So we would take short jaunts to hotels not too far away and there were lots of beach hotel properties that were nice for a family stay. So I was using the hotel programs before the airline programs.

2. The second question is: when did I get serious about this stuff? That's easier. In 2004, I bought a timeshare from Marriott. The timeshare week cost plenty, and it got me a lot of Marriott points. I wanted to learn about the Marriott rewards program to make best use of my timeshare purchase. And that in turn led to airline award programs when I redeemed the Marriott points for Marriott travel packages (including business class air using AA miles from the packages). Our first major trip on points was to Rome in 2005 - we flew Business class and I realized that after my wife had a taste of J we were never going to be sitting in coach ever again. I discovered FlyerTalk in 2007. Today I'm far less dependent on the Marriott program because of all that I've learned from all of you here on FT. We've been to a lot of great places.

I joined American in 1985, then United next year. However the wonderful TWA 50,000 first class award mentioned above was truly amazing. Best part, in spring of '88 there was a promotion to earn triple miles per each flight. My husband and I were working in Honolulu and I flew just a few times to Santa Barbara and met the 50,000 miles. My mother actually flew as my husband to New York with me and topped off his account at 50,000.
We then flew first class to Switzerland for several weeks and on to Cairo and back to USA all first. A few weeks later we got bumped to first from LAX to Amsterdam on KLM. I was spoiled for life! When I retired from working all over the world in 2000, I discovered Flyertalk. So many wonderful flights and hotels due to what I learned here.

Me too. Early 90s.

Yes it is quite clear that there are two questions because I posed two questions ;) although you failed to answer either :eek:. As stated in the subject line: What Year Did You Join Your First Frequent Flyer Program and What Was It?

During that promo, I remember having one business trip BOS-STL-SEA-STL-MSP-STL-AUS-STL-BOS. With TWA, all roads went through STL.

Hi -

The first FF program I remember is Western Airlines having a punch card in the late 70s. You collected 5 punches, the card could be redeemed for $50 off any fare. As you boarded the plane, the GA would punch your card.

I joined AAdvantage and Mileage Plus in 1981. Back then they both ran promos with flying 5 segments, get a free F ticket. Those Mileage Plus cards with your info on them was annoying; you had to staple them to the ticket.

I joined the rest of them as as they came out. TW, CO, PA, WA, DL, People Express, NY Air, Reno Air, etc, etc.