Hi....I can't help feel that I am not utilizing my miles correctly. I have accounts with Alaska and NW. I live in Seattle, and fly primarily Alaska when I can. I fly on NW only to travel to Minneapolis to see my parents. I have a NW Worldperks checkcard that gives me 1 mile per dollar spent. But I find that when I am flying, I usually have those miles credited to Alaska. So now I find myself with a balance of about 20k Worldperks, and about 14k in Alaska's account.

To top it all off, my girlfriend who lives with me, has Alaska Airlines Visa that gets 1 mile per dollar spent, and sometimes I just use that for big tickets and pay it directly out of my checking account right away to get the free miles. So she has only Alaska mileage plan with a balance of about 20k.

How can I utilize these two plans better? My girlfriend and I pretty much share our miles as we fly together, or have an arrangement that I can use hers as I need to since I am paying much of the bills here where we live.

Thoughts? thanks!!!!

Since both Alaska and NW are partners, I would just concentrate on one program. You can then credit all of your AS and NW flight miles to one place. I would also get the credit card for that corresponding airline. If you decided to go with Alaska, you might want to top off your NW account so that you could at least get up to 25K for a domestic award.

Good luck and welcome to Flyertalk!

I should also state that my girlfriend is planning on moving her checking account to B of A where she gets 1 mile per every $2 spent on the checkcard, and I could do the same, but I am currently getting 1 for $1 on the NW checkcard, and the Alaska checking account does not offer the 1 for 1 ...........just the 1 for $2.

thanks

I agree with the previous poster, concentrate on one airline and put all your miles there. I fly mostly AS, but do 5 or 6 trips a year on NW. All of the NW trips go to my AS miles. If you fly AS enough to earn MVP or MVPG status, you can request exit row or bulkhead seats on NW flights.

When choosing a program to concentrate on, think about what you want out of an FF program.

If you want awards on lots of different carriers, ditch NW WorldPerks and build up your AS account. MP has tons of partners, and WorldPerks award availability seems to have declined a fair amount.

If you want first class upgrades on transcon trips, concentrate on NW and try to achieve WorldPerks elite status.

Like you, I fly both AS and NW but stick with WorldPerks -- upgrades on short AS west coast flights don't matter to me, but they're nice on long trips to the midwest or east coast, and NW elites get them free every now and then.

However, it is easier to make elite status on AS.
Also, does the card miles acount to your elite status?

the card miles do not count towards elite status.

I think the best way to go is Alaska........NW isn't doing a ton for me and their award availability is horrible. I fly Alaska more than anyone anyways, and if I go somewhere else, I can fly Delta, NW, and American to help in qualifying for AS MVP status. I have never made it there before, but this year I may with some thought out planning.