I've never done the frequent flyer thing before and I'm trying to figure it all out. I have a goal to get my family (me, husband and 3 kids) to Europe next summer (2007). It seems a bit daunting but other people have said they've done it . . . So I'm starting now. I've read the credit card sticky post. We don't fly very much at all (MAYBE one flight a year) so we're going to have to get all our points from credit cards (or at least as many as we can get).

I think I have decided to get the AA credit card for our small business - in my husband's name (I like the fact that he gets all the miles from the employees spending), I will get the AA credit card so I can get the bonus sign-up and then I think I will get the Starwood because everyone has said such wonderful things about it.

My first question is there something I'm missing? Where can I get more miles?

I don't really understand the whole partner thing with the airlines - American Airlines is partnered with certain airlines - when it's time to turn in the miles I can fly an any one of those airlines. Also, if I purchase a flight on these other airlines I can give them my AA frequent flyer number and get credit for the miles - correct?

I would love any advice or links to other posts that discuss things that would be of value to me. I just found this website today and I'm very excited - thanks!!

There are lots of ways to get miles. If AA is the airline you choose to go with, check out the AAdvantage section of AA.com, which lists most of the main ways to earn miles.
But, I should point out that getting award tickets to Europe during the summer is VERY difficult. As you point out, AA miles can be redeemed/earned on partner airlines (i.e. British Airways to Europe). And getting 5 award tickets on the same flight may prove to be a real challenge.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

You will probably receive better advice if you flesh out some of the details of your trip. What city will you fly from, and what is your destination in Europe? What ages are the children? Do you intend to fly in economy class, or is your ambition to fly in business class?

There are two primary reasons that people say "wonderful things" about the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card. First, the points can be converted to miles on many airlines, but this isn't as important if you are collecting miles for one trip and know the carrier you will use. Second, Starwood awards a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 points transferred to an airline program. This means $20,000 in credit card charges could generate 25,000 miles. You need to estimate how much you will use the card prior to your trip, and how to allocate spending between the Starwood card and the AAdvantage card. If you do not earn at least 20,000 Starpoints you will not realize much benefit compared to using only the AAdvantage card.

You mentioned that you have a small business. Bear in mind that you could apply for an AAdvantage business card to use there, but you and your husband could also apply for separate personal AAdvantage cards to earn additional enrollment bonuses - but also pay additional annual fees, and have additional inquiries on your credit reports.

You also mentioned that you fly infrequently. Do you take driving trips, or train trips, and stay at hotels or motels?

dennis

Dave is correct - summer availability to Europe can be a problem, especially if you don't have flexibility on dates and destinations. Coach availability will be better than Business or First Class. Availability will be greatest as soon as booking opens, at 330 days before the first flight. This means that you will want to have the miles in your account this summer, so that you can lock these tickets down. If there are 5 of you, that means that you need to receive 300,000 miles between now and summer for 5 coach tickets.

OOPS - there is a limit on the number of miles you can get per year on most credit cards, and the Citibank AAdvantage is one of those (I think it's 60,000 miles per year, but you better check it, it's never been a problem for me). I believe that the limit is waived for elites, so if this is going to be a problem (and it will become one pretty quick if you are pumping 60,000 miles/month through your card), whoever has the account these miles are going into better be elite either now or pretty fast.

I'll let others discuss the best ways to get around the total miles per year limit, I have read a few of those discussions but I wasn't paying much attention as it was strictly theoretical.

You can make these programs work for you, but they all have their rules, and you really need to know the rules to know when you need a strategy to work around them.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

<<AA miles can be redeemed/earned on partner airlines (i.e. British Airways to Europe)>>

Unfortunately this is one thing that is generally not permitted. American and British Airways are both members of the OneWorld alliance, but they are competitors on transatlantic routes and there is no reciprocal mileage earning or redemption on flights between the USA and the UK. (It is permitted on flight between Canada and the UK.)

dennis

Okay - Now I'm depressed . You're right, though. I never thought about flying to Europe in peak season. Hmmm . . . We will be (or should I say, would have been) flying out of Charlotte or Raleigh and going to ?? Not sure yet - perhaps Italy.

We don't do tons of traveling - little road trips here and there. I am definitely going to be staying at hotels that we can get points for.

What airline program doesn't have a yearly max? Is there somewhere that has all that info at a glance?

I appreciate everyone's quick responses - thanks!

I forgot to put - my kids will be 6, 9 and 12. We would be flying economy. We just want to find a cheap way over there and spend a couple weeks. It looks like I'm being too optimistic in my plans.

Unless you have very high credit-card spending, you may be out of luck. The miles benefits are mainly for frequent fliers and frequent stayers at hotel, since you do not fit this profile, your best option would be the credit card route. 5 tickets to Europe should be somewhere around 350-400k points (and availability might be an issue), you can probably get 60k by credit card sign-up bonuses, but you still have to earn another 300k points. I would think it would be easier for you to save up $3500 or so to pay for the airfare.

Something else to note is that the farther ahead you try to get reward tickets the better. You would be better trying to get a reward as early as this fall, but that would shorten the amount of time you have to collect miles.

A more realistic goal might be to wait until 2008 or perhaps only try to get maybe three airline tickets and pay for the other two. Just some ideas.

is the mileage cap for non elites 60,000 or 100,000 on the Citi AA MC? i thought it increased to 100k.

60,000 for Gold CC, 100,000 for Plat CC, 150,000 for Business CC. OP didn't say which one they have.
I don't know whether the Citibank AAmex card has caps, and if it does, is it independent of the Mastercard. OP might want to check that out.
Seems like you could get around the max by having multiple cards, like maybe Citibank Business Mastercard, Citibank AAmex, and *wood Amex.

The other solution to this problem, of course, is a challenge.

One word of warning about giving your personal credit card number to employees to charge on. Employees leave your company, and some leave under less than friendly terms. You can get stuck for the charges by a disgruntled employee.

It looks like we will just try saving. We have a Chase card that gives you 1% back on regular purchases and 5% on groceries, gas and drug stores.

I'm going to go ahead and have my husband get a business card for frequent flyer miles. We wouldn't be giving out cards to just any employees - there are two that already have them - so it wouldn't be anything new. That way we can still be earning miles for future use - perhaps not for this trip but another one.

Thanks for all your input.

If you want to go down the AA route then have a look at this website.

http://www.mileagemaximizer.com/

I suggest you first take a look at the How to Begin page of my website below. Then, if you decide to collect American Airlines miles, look at each page of the website for deals for that airline. First click on the page (important), then do a word search on "American A". Particularly good offers can be found in the Finance and Other Programs I Like sections.

Another thing you might want to consider is sucking it up and buying the airline tickets on whoever is cheapest. Instead of trying to collect 300-400,000 miles in a short time try and get enough hotel points to stay for free. Hotels in Europe can be very, very expensive and you will probably need two rooms because of the three kids and their ages. You could find that the hotels will cost 300-400 A NIGHT!

Get the Hilton AMX and with your personal and business spending you could rack up enough points for probably 2 rooms for two weeks free. That's a lot of savings especially if you go to expensive cities.

Just another option. I wouldn't want you to try for miles only to be surprised when the hotels cost as much as the airline tickets.