I've been flying regularly (monthly visits to my fiance, annual Los Angeles business trip, etc) and it may be about to step up.

When she comes down here, she'll be making monthly visits to friends. And the three of us (me, her, our daughter) will be taking one or two vacations out of the country per year.

So... yeah, what the heck am I doing? What airline and program should I be dealing with?

vance, welcome to FT and your new adventures. In order to be of help you would need to tell us to where your lady's monthly trips would be, how often you plan on traveling and to where, where your international destinations are likely to be and any other related info that influences your choices. Do you and/or your ladies' (mother or daughter) have current status with any airline? How close are you to getting status? With this information FTers might be able to assist you. Also please read the "stickies" at the top of the Mileage Run and Miles Buzz forums to get a good sense of what are the general issues involved. With the stickies as backgroun knowledge for you and the details as additional knowledge for FTers, you will be able to ask much more focused questions and we will be able to give helpful answers. Congratulations on your new household/households.

Thank you, I tend to only skim the stickies like a moron.

None of us have any affiliation with any airlines or programs, fresh start.

The fiance's trips to see her friend will be every month or two (probably month and a half) to Alabama and back here to Tampa. Just her, not the daughter. That will last a couple of years, at which point her best friend in Alabama is moving to Africa. So probably I'll be sending my fiance to Africa a couple of times per year after that point.

Annual vacations will be mostly to Europe. I know we'll go to Japan once or twice, and probably Cancun for the wedding. So really all over the place, but mostly Europe. Most of these will be all three of us, but occasionally just me and the fiance.

If anymore details pop into my head I'll edit them in here. Thanks for your time.

Welcome to FT, Vance!

Your being from Tampa reminds me of something a friend from the Orlando area once joked: "I don't know which way I'm going when I die, but I know I'll have to change in Atlanta."

For service to BHM (I picked the largest city in Alabama in the absence of specifics) it's Delta via ATL over anyone else. They also have good service to Europe from there and connections within the continent through their partnership with Air France, plenty of flights to the left coast, a daily nonstop to Tokyo as well as code-share flights via partners, and reasonable service (again often via partners) to the rest of the planet.

So, that would be my first choice. I know they're in bankruptcy proceedings now, but I doubt they'll go under or do anything to antagonize potentially good customers. In fact, other airlines in similar situations in the past have tried to make their frequent flyer programs more attractive than they had been before.

My suggestion would be to read the Delta and SkyTeam forums (fora?) here and the information on their Web sites. If nothing you see there scares you off, sign up and concentrate your flying on DL/SkyTeam as much as possible. Get a Delta SkyMiles Optima credit card to earn more miles- some of which may also count toward status. Focus, not spreading your flights around at random, is a big part of success at this game. You'd be surprised at how fast your miles can add up - especially once you start using your chosen airline's partners for things like sending your fiancee flowers!

(P.S. Before the spelling police come down on you too hard for this, the person you're engaged to is a "fiance" if male, "fiancee" with two e's if female as yours seems to be. Blame the French if you don't like it, but that's how it is. Theoretically there ought to be an accent on the e after the c too, but it's not necessary in English.)

Growing up in Chattanooga, that joke was an institution. As is the less-PC line often directed at those who have moved South for a better life, but then complain about how much they don't like it:

"If you want to go home, Delta's waiting."

Welcome, btw, Vance. I'm fairly new to FT, but the things I have learned here have really changed the way I approach just about anything related to travel!

Vance, there are lots of ways to get lots of miles with and without flying. With the DL AMEX gold card, for example, you can get 20,000 bonus miles (not base miles, which are known as MQMs on DL - but bonus miles) if you get a card now and ask for an extra one for your fiancee. Plus there's no annual fee for the first year and you get double bonus miles on everyday purchases at grocery and drug stores, gas stations, etc. Frequently, there are also other double miles bonus promotions and you get double miles when you buy DL tickets. If you are going to be spending $25K a year on expenses that you can charge to an AMEX card, the DL Platinum AMEX will get you 10K MQMs (counts toward the 25K needed to get Silver Medallion status) per year. Thus you'd only need to actually get 15K additional MQMs through flying in order to get to Silver Medallion. There's usually a sign up bonus and fee reduction/elimination for the Platinum card as well but I don't see one right now. Check the American Express web site under personal cards - benefits for all the details on the various cards, including the Optima that Efram suggested. Lots of choices depending on your spending patterns, etc.

Efrem's excellent suggestion about charging everything to the AMEX card (as long as you can pay the bill in full each month) is a good thing to keep in mind. Also, there is a new card out called the AMEX points (rather than miles) card for DL but you'll need to do a search on that to get the details. Some like it and some don't but you can make your own decision from discussions on other forums. (Shouldn't it be "fori", Efrem? )

I agree that DL would be a good choice given your location and flying habits. While some FTers feel that award availability on DL is getting less and less, that is not my experience. With all the Skyteam airlines, my wife and I have always had good luck getting award travel wherever we want to go as long as we have a little flexibility. Of course, that's not a concern for you initially but will become important as you accrue miles. We go to Europe every year on award travel in Business Elite on DL or First Class on Air France and not having to pay for those tickets is a major factor in staying with DL. Check frequently in the Delta forum on FT, the Mileage Run forum, the DL web site specials and perhaps a web site like smartertravel.com to get the latest frequent flyer deals and insider tips related to DL and other airlines. Don't forget that flying the SKyteam airlines when DL's flights don't fit your itinerary can still earn you the DL miles. Just be careful that the fare class you choose on other Skyteam airlines gets you full DL miles. (e.g. the lowest classes of fares on CO will only get you .5 DL MQMs for every actual mile flown)

There's lots more to consider and I'm sure many others will offer suggestions. That's something you'll never lack on FT! I'll offer help whenever I can. Good luck.

Efrem, good call on BHM. That's where she lived most of her life and her family is still there. I should have been more specific, as she'll probably be flying in most of her trips at Pensacola, FL, or Mobile, AL. Thanks also for the clarification on fiancee. (As a writer, I had to smack my forehead on this one.)

Jaymay, it does seem a wonderful source of info, yes. I imagine I'll be around annoying those in the know for a long time.

Upgrader, my head was spinning before the end of the first paragraph. I'm walking away with a wealth of info already, and I do appreciate it. I'll be looking at Delta despite my mandate that I'd never fly with them again (I used them most of my life and never had a flight that arrived on time. The straw that broke the camel's back was a flight into ATL that was an hour late, causing me to miss a connecting flight to BHM so that I had to wait seven hours in the terminal for the next one. They really didn't give a damn when I spoke to them about it.)

Truth in advertising:

I used to fly Delta, was a Flying Colonel (guess I still am) and some level of Medallion (usually Royal, then Gold) for all the 90s, but haven't gone near them since switching to AA a few years back. The main reasons:

1. AA fits my current travel patterns better. Doesn't apply to this situation.

2. I was really ticked at some things in SkyMiles that seemed to hit me, given my spending/travel patterns, especially hard. They may not hit the OP equally, and the worst have been rescinded since then.

3. I got a total blow-off letter from CS when I wrote them about #2. I've mellowed a bit since, perhaps, or just come to understand that it can happen with any airline and that a statistical sample of size 1 isn't very reliable. I was ticked big-time, but I'm not sure that was justified.

And AA offered me a comp to Platinum, which they probably wouldn't today and which cushioned the transition considerably.

Since I've mentioned most of this in other FT posts and my profile says AA, I thought I'd get it out on the table here. None of it is a reason anyone else should follow me.

Vance, welcome to FlyerTalk!

I'm assuming the Vancette is doing a lot of PNS/MOB-TPA flights (that's Pensacola/Mobile to Tampa), and then you, her, and the Vanceling (sorry, couldn't resist) are flying out of Tampa?

I spent a few months in PNS and flew a variety of Delta, Northwest, and Continental. However, right now, AA has started to fly out of PNS, which alters your equation slightly.

Here's what I suggest. Join ONE program for each of the major alliances (e.g. Delta/Northwest/Continental, AA, United/USAir, etc.) You can earn miles in that program even by flying other carriers - so you can earn Delta SkyMiles for flying on Northwest or Continental, for example - so that you can start to consolidate your miles among one or two programs.

In terms of long-time viability, consider that DL/NW are both bankrupt, as is UA. CO has lousy award redemption. I like AA, personally, but their flights to/from PNS/TPA may not work for you (I think they just fly PNS-DFW, not PNS-MIA). So you might want to pick the program you're most likely to fly with.

Then, start accumulating all the "sign-up" bonuses for things like credit cards (if your credit can tolerate it), brokerage accounts, bank accounts, etc. etc. etc... for both you and the Vancette. pgary's website is excellent for stuff like this (www.freefrequentflyermiles.com).

Keep in mind that it costs you NOTHING to join every FF program on the planet. I have memberships in NW, CO, DL, AA, HP, US, Hawaiian, and every hotel program you can think of. But I consolidate my miles-earning in AA (and to a lesser degree, NW). the goal is to avoid the 'orphan miles' syndrome as much as possible.

good luck!

Just to further confuse you, if you're going to be staying at a lot of hotels you may wish to join the hotel loyalty programs. Many of them let you earn miles on various airlines. But the best use of these programs is the points that can be used for free nights and the number of stays that get you status at the hotels. This often results in upgrades to better rooms.

A full analysis of each program will take 17 pages . Most of the major chains have their pluses and minuses. If there is a hotel you'll be staying at a lot (perhaps on your monthly L.A. business trips) then I'd pick that program and concentrate on that one.

I like the Starwood program (Sheratons, Westins, etc.). Not only do you earn points for free stays but you can transfer points to many airliness. Delta transfers at a rate of 1:1. But the real benefit is if you transfer 20,000 points you'll get a 5,000 mile bonus (25,000 miles for 20,000 Star points). I don't believe they count for MQM on Delta. To accumulate points faster you can get the Starwood Amex card. 1 point per dollar. $30 annual fee, free first year. I don't know if this would be better for you than the Delta Amex. You'll have to check it out but I thought it's something you should consider.

PS All of this can seem overwhelming at first but hang in there. It will start to make sense soon enough.

Just a quick thought up front, but there is a massive wealth of information on these forums, has anybody ever considered creating a companion site to index and categorize all the info here? I use Talkspot for my websites, which provides a free website editor as well as tons of free webspace. You can even restrict viewing to members.

At any rate, just tossing that out there as an idea.

Efrem, I've actually been solely using AA ever since my split with Delta. I have signed up for both programs just now, so we shall see.

Grasshopper: "(sorry, couldn't resist)" Don't worry, it made me chuckle, so it rocks.

I'll be following your advice on multiple programs (am creating my own index to keep track of them all,) but I just need to know how flying on one carrier gets me miles on another.

XStAnt, the trip is only annual, as is the vacation, but I see the vacation getting more frequent as my stocks fatten up. So I guess the trick would be to figure out how those programs and cards would work with foreign AND domestic hotels.

Speaking of maximizing miles when purchasing, another great website is ANDREWCX's Comparison Resource (www.andrewcram.com/frequentflyer.html)

H

If the OP/family is going to be doing significant overases travelling, I would take a hard look at an alliance/carrier other than SkyTeam members. I say this because if he is looking for premium class seating, it will cost him $$$$, whereas UA/AA have various certificates that will get you into premium seating if you are a top tier FF member. The other thing is that if you want to bust out miles to sit in premium seating on SkyTeam, you have to buy into the highest coach buckets, which aren't cheap.

Not a bad idea, but the problems are:
1. the amount of information IS rather large
2. said information is CONSTANTLY changing (promos, rules changes, etc.)
3. there are existing websites (like the aforementioned www.freefrequentflyermiles.com) which do a decent job of indexing the major info

FlyerTalk is definitely overwhelming for the newbie, but hang on for a bit, you'll get it!!