Best FF program/credit card for my flying patterns?
 

In brief:

In the fall, I'm moving to Montreal (YUL). The overwhelming majority of my air travel from Montreal will be to see family in three places:

1) Knoxville (TYS)

2) Dayton (DAY)

3) Lubbock (LBB)

As a result of the move, my parents (who are remaining in Knoxville) and I are suddenly more determined to eke out the maximum mileage benefits from our travel. We'll be getting a mileage-earning credit card and charging whatever we can to it.

So, then, what's my best choice -- of FF program and/or credit card -- in this situation?

Thanks,
C.

You'll have to look and see who provides the most efficient service for your flights and probably go with that. You've got some smaller airports in your list, so who serves those will probably define you down to just one or two programs to even consider.

aa serves the 4 cities you mention....don't know if others do....interesting concept of the family sharing a cc....good luck

Ithink this is a good candidate for either the Starwood Amex(plat.if you can swing it,the Aeroplan Amex(since you could book *alience partners). the Capitol one Platinum no hassles milage card.or a Diners Club card.Since you have five different airports,none of which are a hub,and so you are going to need a lot of flexibility/availibility.And all of the above will let you have additional cards for family members.
I am going on the assumption that AC is still a partner with Amex platinum and Diners Club.

Capital One's card wouldn't be as good an option at smaller (read: higher fare) airports because its "miles" for free travel are based on the price of a ticket and not tied to any frequent-flyer program.

From TYS to YUL, US Airways has the most direct routing, through Pittsburgh, but a quick search on ITA shows their fare to be considerably higher than Delta (via ATL), NW (via DTW), and American (through ORD). However, US Airways does not serve Lubbock. US is a Star Alliance member so you'd also be able to receive credit for Air Canada and United flights.

One thing you might want to consider is the ease of obtaining elite status with one or more airlines. That way you can enjoy priority boarding, free upgrades, and fewer blackout dates for award travel. US Airways' Bank of America Visa card offers automatic triple miles for all tickets booked in the first six months of card membership, which can put you on the fast track to Preferred status. American allows you to complete a "challenge" toward Platinum or Gold status by flying a certain number of miles on qualifying fares in 90 days. (Go to the AA forum and search for "challenge" if you want to find out more). Delta, of course, has gutted its SkyMiles program so that the cheapest fares only earn 50% of miles toward elite status, so if status is important to you avoid DL.

For the city pairs you'll be traveling to most often, AA offers the best service, both through ORD and DFW. If I were you, I'd move most of my flying to American and perhaps choose US Airways/Air Canada/United as a secondary carrier.

I'd personally choose the best airline that has mainline service to those cities and stick to that one carrier, getting the credit card for that carrier or the SPG Amex and having the option to top off any FF account. Use a website like www.skyguide.net to pull the schedules between the listed city pairs, then choose which carrier seems the most convenient.

Will you also be looking for elite status as well?

aloha

This is a time-limited promotion that ran/runs from the beginning of the year until June 30, or March 1 to August 31 if you sign up. It's not a blanket "first six months" policy.