Hi. Didn't realize such an extended world of FF existed until finding this forum.

I've flown a quite a bit but never really kept close track of my miles. I'm now realizing that that wasn't such a smart idea. So, I'm trying to figure out the best way(s) to begin doing this.

Currently, I travel a decent amount - maybe two trips LAX - Japan per year and another couple trips LAX - New York per year. I usually fly coach, very occasionally get an upgrade or maybe a business class ticket. For my Japan trips, I usually fly Singapore (if not too expensive), ANA or JAL. Changeable tickets are very important and ANA is usually the most lenient. Singapore used to be easier, but now tend to charge to change tickets. I haven't flown JAL as much recently. I've never really flown AA, UA or NW on the Japan trip.

Also, I tend to charge all my business expenses - maybe five thousand or so - on a debit card at the moment. Another big waste of potential miles.

So - here's my main questions:

1) What program would be the best to join and kinda standardize under until I start understanding the nuances of FF travel like you CrazyFlyers.

2) What credit card would be the best for a business card that got FF miles - business expenses, taxes, etc? I'm with BOFA for my general business bankng.

Thanks!! I read a bunch of the forums, but all the posts are a bit more detailed dealing with specific situations, not general opinions.

The major issues involved in choice of airlines are:
1. Schedule
2. Comfort (includes upgrades)
3. Miles for free trips
4. Cost (if you pay for the tickets)

The answer to your question depends on which of these is most important to you. For example, your annual flying is enough to achieve low-level elite status on most airlines. If comfort was your top priority, you would look at your chances to upgrade on your routes on each airline. For example, as a Gold on AA, you would have very little chance of upgrading your LAX-JFK flights with 500 mile "stickers". You could upgrade LAX-JFK with miles (15,000 each way), and you could upgrade LAX-Japan with miles (25,000 miles and $250 each way). You would earn enough miles by flying to upgrade one LAX-JFK R/T per year, or one LAX-Japan one-way per year.

If you wanted to use miles for free trips, all of the above doesn't matter.

What do you want to get out of frequent flyer program?

Good question.

The most important things to me are:

Comfort and convenience. That's why I started flying Singapore - most comfortable and best service in my experience. But ANA became more convenient and less expensive so that was a consideration (cheaper flights and easier to change).

Upgrades are also important to me. Since almost all of my flying is last minute, I'm more likely to use miles to upgrade than to cash in for a free flight. Even better if I can get a tier status that gives me some free upgrades without using miles?? Sometimes even Premium Economy is better than Economy for me (laptop power in ANA, for instance).

Schedule is somewhat important, but I haven't noticed much difference for LAX-NRT between ANA, JAL, Singapore. As for LAX - New York, I usually fly United, but it's just worked out that way. No huge preference. Again, upgrades and convenience and service are most important, followed by cost.

And as for credit cards, I will generally not keep a balance - just pay it off each month. (Mostly use a debit card at the moment, so not an issue).

Thanks!

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Does the ANA program work for you? It is a Star Alliance member so you can use and earn miles on US Air and United flying in the US. You might do better if most of your flying is domestic joining one of the domestic programs. You can check in the ANA forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=443) to see how difficult it is to use those miles on ANA.

Depends. ANA has a card as does United and US Air. I like the Starwood AMEX Card. For ANA and US AIR as well as Delta and many others, 20,000 points translates into 25,000 miles. (United only gives 10,000 miles for 20,000 points.) However, if you stay mostly at other hotels, consider their programs. Right now I have a 90 day 5% cash back offer on all spending as an I'm sorry for messing up your account and am putting charges there, but will soon be back to Starwood.

Post more information for a better response.

Thanks. I looked a bit at the ANA program and it seemed OK, but then the JAL program seemed like it offered more complimentary upgrades at the higher tiers? It's hard to differentiate among all of them - plus the idea of using something like United or AA or US Air but still flying ANA or Singapore or whatever. And then what should I take in US domestic flights from LAX?

I'm not really familiar with the hotel side of FF stuff. Flight upgrades, priority check-in, better service are all important. I don't really need hotel stuff too much in Japan - but it might be nice for the occasional Europe trip.

For the average year from Los Angeles - two trips to Japan, two trips to New York, maybe one trip elsewhere (Chicago, Europe, etc). Mostly coach flights, but it would be nice to make them business at a not unreasonable expense. Also maybe $50K-$100K on chargeable business expenses.

The problem I see is that half of your flying is international, and half is domestic, and often the ability to upgrade is different. Not being familiar with UA, but knowing that LAX is a hub and flies nonstop to both NRT and NYC, that seems like a reasonable starting point, no?

That makes some sense. I've never flown UA to NRT, but it's certainly worth checking out on my next flight. Do they do that whole challenge thing - is that the way to go?

Much more important for me to upgrade on international flights than on domestic. The difference on a 10 hour flight to Tokyo on international business seems much bigger than coach to first on UA in domestic.

It does not appear to me that you fly enough butt-in-seat miles to achieve mid-level status. I don't think that you are going to be getting a lot of those JAL complimentary upgrades that they offer to the higher tiers. It sounds like you might want to go to the ANA forum and discuss availability of miles upgrades LAX-Japan. Same with UA (or maybe US) for LAX-NTC. What might work well for you would be a credit card that earned ANA miles, and earn UA miles for flights. That would give you some of each for upgrades.

You are losing a big chunck of miles by using your BOA debit card over the years. It depends on which airline you will fly most to recommend you the "best" credit card to go for. Without mentioning any airline affiliated creditcard, folks love using SPG AmEx. See the most recent discussion here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=523503

And, welcome to FT!

If you're willing to fly Air Canada, they have mid-tier qualification at 35k miles which seems to be right around where you fly. With this you can get 4-6 system-wide upgrades (valid on AC, some with more restrictive fare classes than others--this may not matter as much to you if you tend to buy last minute expensive fares). Of course, in order to use this, you have to connect in YVR, but it's actually only a couple hundred miles extra (with a stop). This also gets you *G status which gives you lounge access and other benefits when traveling on other Star Alliance airlines (incl. UA, SQ, NH).

If you fly 50K miles a year, you could get 3 one way upgrades on certain fare class tickets with ANA. Same I think for JAL. You'd get a pat on the back from UA and SQ (maybe).

But, you can also credit any SQ or UA flights to ANA. Miles on ANA will expire of you do not make top tier while UA's don't. ANA has a family sharing account.

If you went with UA you'd get double miles on all flights (NYC, Japan, Europe)if you hit 50K but no upgrades certificates. You need to consider that if the upgrades clear on UA (H class required) it will cost you 90K miles jut to break even up the 3 upgrades you gave up by not choosing ANA. Of course if you in turn applied those 90K (if earned on ANA) to ANA upgrades, you'd be in business every flight to Japan assuming you clear.

Also to consider. If you buy less than a full Y it's only 70% base mileage credit.

Lots to consider.

I don't know what airlines would be most convenient for you, but as far as a credit card, I like the Starwood American Express best. The points you get with it can be converted back to airline points for many carriers and for me, I get 25,000 AA points for 20,000 Starwood points. I live near Dallas so I use AA for most of my trips, including Japan and Europe.

I have only recently begun to lurk here and I haven't had the time to look for special limited time offers from various credit card companies. I am less inclined to do that anyway. I prefer a good, long term card whose "good deal" is not going to expire in 90 days. It seems the Starwood AmEx is well regarded for that in these forums.

First, get the SPG Amex and make it your primary card. That's the easiest decision to make. That will yield free hotel stays fairly quickly, or you can convert the points to miles (although I would recommend doing it only as a last resort to cover an immediate award need). The only drawback to this card is that it is not a good option for augmenting a UA account.

Then, I'd pick one of AA and UA. Their programs are roughly similar, and they have different partners going to Asia (Star Alliance vs. OneWorld). Based on schedule and average costs, pick the one that suits you best. If I were in LAX flying the routes you mention, I think I'd pick AA. But some people here might have a good UA argument as well. Neither of those two is a bad choice.

Finally, get the associated MC/Visa credit card for that program. For small-timers like me, I'd say skip this step - I don't get enough non-Amex overflow to justify the fees, so I just use my Marriott Visa even though it's not an optimal rewards card for spending outside of Marriott hotels. But if you're running $100k/yr. in expenses, you'll find that a good chunk fall through to MC/Visa - enough to justify carrying the airline credit card and picking up the auxiliary perks that come with it. The UA card, for example, comes with some upgrade and flight discount certs. The AA card comes with some discounted awards and is occasionally tied in to a nice mileage-bonus promo with AA or a hotel chain. Perks that in and of themselves aren't of major value, but are enough to nudge you in that direction as opposed to a no-annual-fee CC with near-1% cashback.

What do you mean with non-Amex overflow? Is that for places that don't take Amex? In that case I am much like you.

I pretty much charge everything to my Amex SPG Platinum card and there is no limit to the number of points I can get. There are not enough other charges to justify a fee based VISA/MC. I have a free one from MBNA with 0% balance trasnfer interest rate and offers MBNA's own Worldpoints. I haven't looked into how good those points are but they are building slowly since I don't use that card much.

Exactly...I find Amex accepted in enough places that I only need to run maybe $200-300/month (outside of Marriott stays) on a Visa. So even though getting 1 Marriott point per dollar is pretty lame, I don't sweat it on that small of an amount. It's just not worth carrying around a separate piece of plastic.