I live in Seattle and recently bought a home in San Miguel Mexico. The closest airport is Leon which both CO and AA flies to. CO has the better flights so I lean towards them to make my reservations. I had been collecting Alaska Air miles, a partner to both CO and AA. I recently started collecting some AA miles through a credit card. I stayed away from CO miles because I had heard that getting an award ticket on their airline is the most difficult....but each time I make a CO reservation I wonder if I am missing a long range opportunity by not collecting their miles as well or instead of.......

Any thoughts on my strategy...or lack of.....

Not directly answering your questions, but be aware that CO miles credited to AS are NOT elite qualifying - the miles transfer, but not the status accumulation.

I would think it depends on what you ultimately want to use the miles for - IMHO if you are simply going to take free trips on the same route you travel, it only seems to matter that you accrue on a single carrier to consolidate - but for ease on other routes - say NRT or LHR, might make more sense to go to AA (as opposed to a partner) - but, for instance, if you also use Amex/MR, AA is not a partner, so that would factor in as well - just what is the best scheme to get the most miles in a single account, gain status, and ultimately get miles you can use! Congrats on the Mexico purchase - such a great country.

It's perhaps a little difficult to give good advice without knowing more, but I'm going to guess that your award goals are basically limited to getting free flights between your primary residence and your place in Mexico. When you vacation it'll likely be at your new home. So you don't need points for a place to stay, you're just looking to get there for free.

You've already identified the fact that Alaska partners with both CO and AA. So accumulating miles on Alaska will let you redeem to BJX on either carrier.

Accumulating AA, though, will let you redeem on Mexicana which flies to BJX.
Accumulating CO will let you redeem on Aeromexico which flies to BJX.

However, there's some uncertainty as to what the future will bring for the two Mexican carriers, since major stakes in them could be sold and the identity of the buyer may wind up determining who the airline(s) partner with.

So ...

AS = redeem on CO, AA
AA = redeem on MX, AA
CO = redeem on CO, AM

Let's throw in a monkey wrench. You could choose to earn DL miles instead of CO miles and you can still redeem on CO or AM.

Here's what I'd do if I were you.

If a large portion of my credit card spending was at the grocery store, the post office, etc. (the things that Amex calls "everyday spending") then I'd make the Delta Amex my primary credit card and accumulate Delta miles. Specific kinds of purchases earn double miles all time time with the Delta Amex, and the card runs plenty of double miles promos on top. Then everytime I flew Delta, Continental, Northwest, or Alaska I'd credit the flights to my Delta account.

If most of my spending didn't center around those things that the DL Amex offers double miles for every day, I'd use the Starwood Amex as my primary card and I'd have the option of transferring miles to Alaska, American, Delta, Continental, Mexicana, etc. -- I could choose later, and points transfer 1:1 plus when you transfer 20k points you get 5k bonus miles (total of 25k miles, for an earning ratio of 1.25 miles per dollar spent). I'd probably use Alaska as my primary program because of the local partnerships available in Washington state that other programs won't match, plus you say you do fly Continental and you can credit those CO flights to your Alaska account.

Dear gleff.....

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. Your response was both friendly and helpful and I really appreciate it.

I do have a Starwood Am Ex that I use quite a bit....I had a Delta but gave it up after finallay realizinfg a dream earlier this year by flying BE to Greece with the miles I had collected...

I still am struggling with which airline to collect the miles I accumulate from flights.... but you are right I do plan to use the miles to fly to our new place in Mexico so my intentions are very narrow....I think I will continue to add to my AS acount and my AA account.... since I have a nice start of a balance of miles in both accounts.....

Thanks again....