Where do I start?
 

Hi.
I'm new at this so bare with me. I rarely fly but would like to start building up miles (by using other methods)for a future vacation. The info avail. is overwhemling. Any suggestions on where to begin?
Capie

Hi back to you. Welcome to Flyertalk from one who is still a newbie himself, but has learned a great deal from older hands.

First, decide which one airline you want to concentrate your miles on. Go to that airline's website and if you haven't already done so, register for it's FF program. Remember your number; you'll need it for next steps (and it can take several weeks for your FF material to be mailed to you). Second, visit http://www.mileageworkshop.com Look through all the deals there. Sign up your phone with a tie-in to your FF account. You'll get a signup bonus. Consider a credit card linked with miles to your program. Check back on that site every couple of weeks for new stuff. Third, do you stay at hotels? Then go to their website and join their programs, noting in the preferences that you want credit for stays to be posted as bonuses to your FF account of choice. Fourth, in FlyerTalk, regularly read the board of the specific airline you're concentrating on for occasional "specials" (miles for surveys, etc.) Fifth, when you're logged in to that airline's board, do a "Search" on topics such as "Free Miles" and read old threads for any old freebie links.

Others will doubtlessly have even better suggestions, but those are for starters.

Capie, you need to choose your focus airline.

Think about where you want to take your vacation. What airlines have flights there from where you are? How many miles will it take to get there on each of those airlines?

Do you already travel a lot on a particular airline? You live near St. Louis, which is a TWA hub? Does that airline have flights to your vacation destination? You may want to consider the airline at a local hub in case you change your vacation destination of choice.

Even with the presumed AA buyout, your TWA Aviator miles are presumed to be convertable to AA.

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He who dies with the most miles ... is dead.

[This message has been edited by ontheroad (edited 03-09-2001).]

Can I ask a few questions?

How long do I have to build up my miles? A family vacation for 5 is quite a lot of miles.

On the "charts" for example TWA, they have limited vs. unlimited. Limited refers to the days I can fly??? Not sure.

Thank you so much for your help.

Have a good one!

Capie

If you expect to earn nearly all your miles from charging to a credit card at 1 mi/$, you might consider Visa/MC cards that accumulate miles in their own programs. I think MNBC has such a program, as well as others - there may be more on this in the Visa/MC threades. You then use those miles to get tickets directly rather than transfering them to an airline.

Benefits: You need fewer miles for a given trip.

Drawbacks: Limit on the $ cost of award tickets, not usually a problem with vacations. Cannot combine miles with miles from other sources such as flights or hotel stays, only a problem if you expect a significant fraction of your miles to come from them.

Thanks! I appreciate all your help and suggestions. We'll see how it goes. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif)

Have a great week!

Capie

is there a way to "learn" the various seat classes? i.e. C, F, Y, etc.

I sign on to itn.com and switch my profile to expert. I see all the classes, but have no idea what they mean!

please help... THANKS

You should be able to find quite a few threads on this topic by using the search feature.

However, the short story is that F is for First, C for Busines, and Y, B, ... for Economy and its various discounted flavors. Some letters (D on NW/CO I believe) are reserved for F seats available for elite upgrades.