Greetings and Questions from a Newbie!
 

Hi all! I have recently had the good fortune to discover this forum. As a new member i am excited by the wealth of information and expert advice available here. I do have a couple of questions for all you seasoned flyers!

1) Could you recommend any threads or links that might be beneficial to someone who is new to this forum? For example, i have seen various abbreviations thrown around here that are obviously codes for various airports or frequent flyer programs. While i would no doubt learn many of them in time, it would be nice to know if there were a list or any faqs containing information or other resources that might be helpful to someone just starting out here.

2) What frequent flyer program is generally considered the best overall? My home airports would be LGA, EWR, or JFK as i live in Manhattan. Is one program considered better for domestic travel, or international?
I was fortunate enough to find out about the valuemags promotion just in time to get myself a couple hundred thousand miles and I really don't know where to put them. The only airline I have any considerable amount of miles in currently is AA (about 50k.)

Thanks for any help you can provide me and i look forward to contributing to this forum in any way i can!

broadwayblue



[This message has been edited by broadwayblue (edited 12-29-2001).]

Welcome to FT Broadwayblue! FT is a great forum and has been a blessing to me.

Before choosing a programme you have to evaluate your flying patterns and how you are likely to use miles.

Some things to consider:
Do you fly on discount economy fares or business fares?
I find that AA is really nice if flying on discount economy for a couple of reasons...
1. you can upgrade any fare using miles. many other programmes such as Delta and United restrict which fares you can upgrade. Although, AA does charge for expediting upgrade awards which the other programmes do not. So, it depends on your flying.
2.Also, AA has more room throughout coach. So if you are stuck flying in the back of the plane, you will have legroom and won't have to worry about it if you can't upgrade. United has economy plus but unless you are an elite you probably won't get one of these seats.
3. Most fares earn miles and count towards elite status.

Do you fly domestic or international?
Then you want to consider the alliance members. I am AA platinum and find that oneworld handles most of my needs since I fly to western europe (though I do often have to make a connection in LHR -that's London Heathrow). Star Alliance has broader international coverage.

Some other hints.
Try to concentrate your flying to one airline or alliance so you can get elite status faster.
If you plan to fly alot, you might try a challenge on your airline of choice to earn status sooner than you would otherwise.
Check out the FewMiles' site on AA's AAdvantage programme and the other sites that some FT members have made on the other programmes.

Here is fewmiles site:
http://plaza.powersurfr.com/fewmiles/AA/index2.html

------------------
I Love New York

[This message has been edited by Redhead (edited 12-29-2001).]

welcome to FT, broadwayblue

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Broadwayblue. Are you a Rangers fan, perchance? As a New Jersey-based frequent flyer, I've been happy with American Airlines. Admirals Club personnel at EWR, LGA and JFK greet me by name. Onboard crews are uniformly fine. AA's non-stops to London, San Juan, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas go where I go. For other destinations, I endure plane changes in Chicago or Dallas (and now St. Louis). As an EXP member (100,000 miles per year), I bat nearly 1.000 on upgrades. I commend American Airlines.

Welcome! If you click on the HELP tab link at the top of the page, you'll get more pages on how to use the board. One of the links is an airport code lookup tool.

[This message has been edited by FlyByMike (edited 12-29-2001).]

thanks for all the warm welcomes and information. yes, i am a life-long Rangers fan (just got my season tickets this season!) i mostly fly discount economy fares (domestic) but now that i have a substantial amount of miles i may start using them to purchase upgrades or even redeem them for first class travel. i would also like to start taking some trips overseas (europe) as well as some islands in the caribbean.
I was thinking about having all my goldpoints miles dumped into my AA acount. is there any reason i shouldn't do this? thanks!

i also had a question about Oneworld. is that just an affiliation of airlines that miles can be shared on, or do i need to actually sign up with them as a member?

You don't need to sign up for oneWorld separately.

The main focus of oneWorld is for linkage of FF programs, and AAdvantage will take care of those oneWorld stuff fo ryou.

While I'm from Boston, I'm posting this from a conference room at 511 Fifth Avenue in NYC!

OneWorld is an alliance of several airlines, including AA from the US, British Airways (good for connecting through London to Europe, the mideast and Africa) and several others. You join the FF program of any of these airlines and, with some exceptions, earn miles on any of them as if you had flown on "your" airline. You give your membership number on any of them to any of the others; they do the rest. I'm a member of AA's program but have earned miles on BA and Qantas flights as if they were AA flights.

There are some restrictions on earning miles on other airlines. The most important ones to AA members are that you get no AA credit for trans-Atlantic flights on BA, partial credit for deeply discounted fares on Cathay Pacific, and fractional credit on Iberia. (I have no experience with them, but others have suggested that it's the oneWorld carrier of last resort anyway.) Also, your home airline generally treats you better (especially in terms of upgrades) than other OW members do. So, while there's a good deal of crossing of benefits, it's not 100 percent.

It's usually a good idea to join the program of the airline on which you'll do the bulk of your flying, though there are exceptions. You may be one of them: if you prefer to focus your trans-Atlantic flying on BA rather than AA, and you hardly ever fly at discount economy fares, a North American membership in BA's program could work out better than joining AA's. One big plus is that you would get free access to AA lounges once you qualify for the requisite elite level. On AA, you only get free access when you're flying on an international itinerary that day.

You can find more information about oneWorld at their official site, http://www.oneworldalliance.com , or at the excellent unofficial site maintained by one of our most helpful fellow FlyerTalkers, "FewMiles," at http://fewmiles.tripod.com/oneworld .

If you have more questions specifically about oneWorld, the forum for that alliance (scroll way down the list for the alliances section) would be the best place to ask them.

[edited (1) to add last paragraph (2) to insert a space after the OW URL so it will work]

[This message has been edited by Efrem (edited 12-31-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Efrem (edited 01-01-2002).]

thanks again everyone! i think i'm going to just have all my goldpoints converted into AA miles. now i need to start planning some trips...and maybe even a mileage run!

broadwayblue -

Aha - the magic "milage run". See you are learning VERY FAST. Keep up the good travelling (work) and Welcome to FlyerTalk.

dAAvid -