It this time of year that I think many people look ahead and try to anticipate their travel trends for the next year and plan their FF strategy accordingly. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about this and came up with a pressing question: Looking at my travel (based in BOS and GVA) I will undoutably retain my Travelclub status blah blah, that is a given with the amount of BOS-ZRH segs I fly.
Now, I will have about 50K more miles of travel this year (probably). I know for sure that half will be on *A and not sure about the other 25K. My question would be, with that additional mileage should I use it to make Premex, or get gold on AA or a lowest tier elite on another airline. To make a long story short: What would you rater have, 2 low level elite cards or 1 mid level elite card?
Thanx for your time

Go for the PremEx. The low level status gets you so little.

I agree completely. Only after you get to the top of one program should you consider establishing status with another, primarily for the times you get bumped etc.

The other option is to go with 1W. You can fly BOS/GVA on AA flight #'s because of the code share. If you concentrate all your flying that way, you might be able to make highest tier...

For my BOS-GVA trips I am pretty much commited to SR due to business/friendship ties and also because travelclub is more valuble to me than a low level status on an American Carrier. In reading the posts I think I wil go for the 1p. Thanx for your responses.

You'll spend a lot more days wishing you were at a higher level on your primary airline than you will spend days wishing you had a little status on a second airline.

Go for the Platinum!

Go for the maximum level you can get - AA Platinum or UA PremEx, I'd say UA - anyhow, after you get one, you can get the other airlines to comp you one of those lower levels incase you get stuck on one of their flights. Even at 25K, it's better than No "K". I've been able to have CO, US, TWA, AA & DL all comp me differing flying levels based solely on my flying with United.




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Ken in Sacramento

Generally, I agree with the rule of thumb: one mid-tier is better than two lowest-tiers. The one exception *might* be if you have the chance to add AA Gold. Even if you keep *A as your preferred way to travel, having OW as a backup would be nice (same goes vice versa).

Word of caution in the USA: if you are flying on an airline with which you have NO status, and you run into irregular operations, it may be very, VERY difficult to reschedule your flights. (For example, AA will from time to time reject phone calls from non-elite pax, and I imagine they aren't the only ones who do it.) Airline customer service for non-elites is very poor here across the board, whereas even the lowest level of status earns you a separate phone line (that usually gets answered) and use of first/business class lines at the airport.

The different I feel between AA nothing and AA Gold:

1. Faster Checking and Boarding (no use in DTW but great use Hubs like LAX/DFW)
2. Seems the smile from check-in agent is greater (b'cos Buz line?)
3. I found the Gold Phoneline is just like normal one, nothin special

Different between Gold and Plat.
1.OW Buz Check-in, this saved me some 30mins in LHR last time with BA.. what a "zoo" in LHR
2. Anyline AA checkin-in.
3. The Plat lIne indeed more professional (except one I encountered) and I found that they can offer better flight arrangements sometime than normal reservation line.
4. THe use of Adminal Club and any OW Buz lounge at INTERNATIONAL travel. So I never paid Admiral Club membership while using them

Cheers!

Duplicate Deleted.
Sorry.

[This message has been edited by HK-UMICH (edited 01-15-2001).]

I have to disagree with "...getting to the top tier of one program before establishing status with another". It depends on your travel patterns. Leisure or Business? Where are you going, how often, and when? If you know one airline can meet most all your travel needs, then sure, getting to the top there makes sense. However, if you fly a lot for business and to many different destinations, a single carrier may be very inconvenient. Better to have mid-tier status on two airlines you will use a lot, then top tier on one and nothing on the other. Better yet is mid-tier on two airlines and lowest level status on another. Almost nowhere you can't get to in a reasonably convenient manner and at decent times.

Personally, I find myself on US a lot for leisure (family/friends on the east coast) and Silver status works very well there. For business I use AA and UA and hold Platinum status on AA and 1K on UA (dropping back to Premier Exec in March). With the UA/US merger, it is likely that I will spend more time on UA and thus may shoot for 1K again this year. With another 100,000 AA miles, I will be lifetime Gold (lowest level) and won't have to worry about status there anymore.

With many ff programs incorporating total revenue into their schemes, it seems to me that now more then ever - we may be better off trying to stick with one airline as much as possible even after attaining top level status. It remains to be seen just how much additional "juice" higher revenue levels will play within ff programs.