Help the New Guy Start Over!
 

I've got FF with US, DL, and AW. With US not looking good, DL in question, and AW funding my trips home to PHX and playing in LAS, I need to join a solid FF program. Since I'm about to buy a house, I'd like to start it by using the RE and home loan programs airlines offer. Can anyone advise on which is the best FF program?

While I'm at it, I've just joined, but have been reading these forums for months. You people are fantastic, not to mention fun and interestiong to read!

Welcome to FlyerTalk, devildc!

This may not apply if you intend to earn a lot of miles in your new FF program by actually flying, but if not, you might consider Starwood (hotels) rather than an airline. They're currently offering starpoints for refinancing and the Starwood Amex is often considered one of the best credit cards for earning miles/points. Best of all, while the starpoints you'll earn can be spent at relatively high valuations for hotel stays, you can also convert them into miles with a wide array of airlines. United doesn't offer such a great conversion rate, but with most other major carriers you get 1 mile per starpoint, and 25,000 miles if you convert 20,000 starpoints at a time.

So you could refinance and keep the points with Starwood until you want to take a trip, and then convert the points into the miles you need with whichever airline is still healthy at that point.

The only problem with this plan is the better deals you can find elsewhere. You may want to shop around first. The miles may not be worth it

When I refinanced my condo, I checked the banks that offer United miles. But I got a much better rate through a local mortgage broker, and the miles weren't worth the difference.

Amex guarantees that they'll beat your lowest offer - or pay $500. Tried it - they did (beat the offer)... still waiting for the points though - I believe they have about 1 more week.