This www.deja.com survey put
1. Continental OnePass [4.0]
2. SAS EuroBonus [3.8]
3. Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards [3.6]

full details on http://www.deja.com/rate/list_items....PCID=12341&N=0

I must be missing something I checked out CO before switching to DL,I didnt go with CO cause one needs more miles to go anywhere or for ups and their dom. free coach requires a sat. night stay for the same miles the others dont have this.Also to get to the middle-east its 80000 miles for 1 r/t up while with ba or a aa/ba combo for 80000 iI can get a free bus. tkt.

Huh? CO domestic coach flights can be had for 20K miles from Sept-May. True, it requires a Saturday night stay, but this is the best deal around. It beats spending 25K miles with Delta and others.

US Airways has the same off-peak award with required Sat night stay availabe for travel between September 15 to end of February. On these ratings it's program posted as the third highest USA-based airline (after CO and Southwest), sixth overall.

I think that's fair (in terms of the program itself), personally but I'm biased

[This message has been edited by dg1 (edited 12-22-1999).]

MILE-KING,SORRY BUT i DO DIFFER W/U,i JUST WENT W/TW FROM EWR TO SAN,IT WAS A MON TO THUR TKT YES IT WAS 25000 BUT A TKT WAS $1600, SINCE iM PLAT W/THEM THEY HAD TO GIVE ME A SEAT ALTHOUGH NO FREE SEATS REMAINED.IF I WAS GOING OVER A SAT THE TKT WOULD HAVE BEEN A FACTION OF THE COST & I WOULD HAVE PURCHASED IT. SO THE DEAL W/CO ALTHOUGH 25% LESS MILES IS NO REAL DEAL COPARED TO THE COSTS.

Yes, I agree with you, Craz. A USA transcon ticket coach is $2000 without a Sat. stay. With a Sat stay, you can get a ticket for $400. The value of a reward that requires a Sat stay is therefore a fraction of the value otherwise. With AA, I recently saved $4000 using awards rather than money simply by buying to award tix instead of paying $$$.

I recently obtained a Continental reward ticket for a friend in NJ who needed to visit a sick family member in L.A., with only a few days advance notice I was able to book a RT that would have cost $2000 for 20,000 OnePass miles. Even with the Sat. night stay the reward tickets can be an exceptional value, I always try to maintain some mileage for an unexpected emergency.

The Saturday night required stay applies to NW also. I go with NW and UA for the ff programs. NW has better prices for bought tickets, so I can take more status miles trips for the cost. UA requires 25,000 ff miles for a domestic ticket and no Saturday night (I'm glad everyone made a ruckus earlier this year). The extra 5,000 miles is worth it since I work almost ALL Saturdays! My airport of choice (EUG, Oregon) is possible on award travel on both these airlines. CO doesn't have award travel to or from Eugene.

I guess everyone has their own system for rating the ff programs, and living in a small town tends to individualize it.

What is the best FF program?? Depends on what you want, where you live, how much you fly, do you travel on discount tickets, etc.

I find one factor not rated much (vut important to me) is the number of "miles given to get to an Elite level" given on short flights. I find TWA has (at least for Platinum: 1000 minimum toward Elite (vs. 275 + 750 bonus miles on other airlines). So a flight from IND to STL to MLI (round trip) gets you 4,000 miles toward elite. As I fly many short (< 500 mi) flights, the 1,000 minimum really makes a difference.

Also TWA (for Platinum) will give you a reservation for Award Travel (and bump vouchers) for ANY flight that has a seat available (not just Award seats). I have never been "locked out" of a travel award for the time I wanted.

TWA also has ample bonus miles programs and unlimited First Class upgrades (I get these about 80% even though I travel on discounted tickets often - as TW has more First class seats.)

The drawbacks - few International flights and more limited destinations than the biggies. But I am lucky enough to be Platinum with AA and Gold in CO as well, so can use these when routings demand. And, of course, possible financial problems (but my miles are insured).

I guess it all depends on your travel patterns, craz. I don't use my miles for business travel and any vacations I take almost always involve a Saturday night stay. Therefore, CO's 20K award ticket is a real bargain to me. In your situation, obviously the Saturday night stay is a big factor and you would be better off with DL or another carrier.

Incidentally, I continue to believe that AA miles are the most valuable. In addition to perhaps the best award availability in the industry, you can do a stop-over and an open-jaw on the same award ticket at no extra mileage. On CO stop-over tickets are 35K miles; on UA you can't do a stopover; I believe DL allows a stop-over or open jaw, but not both; not sure about US or others.

Since I use my miles for international travel worth 5-25 cents/mile, the fact that UA doesn't allow stopovers on domestic award tickets isn't an issue for me. I never use miles for domestic award tickets. As has been said, it really depends what you use the miles for.

Frankly, as a 1K I get treated so well that miles are secondary!

That's an interesting site...but I question the accuracy.

[This message has been edited by West Coast Flyer (edited 12-29-1999).]