In your opions which program gives you the most bang for your buck. I have AAdvantage but only enough miles to cover one for our honeymoon in Jamaica. Are there any sites where you can buy miles cheaper than aa.com?
Also are these adds for "I tell you how to get elite status and 50,000 miles in one flight" just the scams they sound like they are?

Thanks.

AA has been running a promo for 25,000 miles if you sign up for a credit card through Citi. Have you already done that? They also had a whole list of recent promos for the 25th anniversary of their mileage program. Did you participate in any of those?

You haven't really provided enough information for anyone to point you to a particular program. What routes do you fly? What's your home airport? Do you fly domestic and international? What kind of fares?

You don't need to buy a book about miles. Spend some time surfing the various forums here and you'll learn all you need to know.

Welcome to FlyerTalk

If there was any such thing as a "best" frequent flyer program, one of two things would happen:

a. It would enable the airline that had it to take lots of business away from its competitors. They would catch on and match it.

b. The airline that had it would realize that it was giving away more than its competitors but not taking lots of business away from them. It would cut back its program to match theirs.

Either way, it wouldn't be "best" any more.

There is, however, such as thing as the best program for a specific individual with specific travel patterns and award goals. You'd have to say more about yours for us to offer any meaningful advice.

As for those ads you see: They're often legit, but I have yet to see one offer any information you can't get here for free. You just may have to spend some time here reading threads on a variety of topics to find it.

What they said, buying a book to learn all this is just a waste, FT is the most updated and reliable source to get on the planet.

While I agree that there is no one ff program best for everyone, in general, AA has to be the overall best. More award seats, more options (because of BA affiliation), more destinations. I have hundreds of thousands of miles with UA, CO, SQ, and AA, and none of them are as valuable as with AA. (Too bad I mostly fly CO and SQ). Although AA is not my favorite airline (employees at war with the passengers), the FF program is great!

PFG

I agree that AA has the best FF program out there however I think that I have finely had it with their customer service from the top down.

I have been flying AA by choice for the past 10 years or so (the last 5 out of BDL) and have bounced between plat and gold depending on my schedule. I don�t even shop the fare unless the cost from AA.com looks way out of line. I know that the service levels for all of the major domestics have probably dropped, but all I can relate it to is AA because I fly the others so infrequently.

Over the past two years I have seen their service level plummet! From GA�s that give you the wrong information (in one case it cost ME $350.00 to remedy) if they bother to give you information at all, to FA�s that sometimes can�t even bother to turn away from their personal conversations to answer a question or remember what you asked for, to FC cabins that would look bad compared to a New York subway car, to my latest fiasco; my wife and daughters canceled award ticket.

I reserved two reward tickets a couple of month�s ago and then purchased the same itinerary online and arranged seat assignments so that my wife would not have to deal with my six year old and lap infant by herself. I had some work to do and thought that we would make a vacation out of it. We show up to the beautiful ticket counter at Bradley to check in to the BDL-MIA-JAX 6:30am flight only find that while my locater was intact, the reward locater was canceled by AAvantage c/s without explanation. Now I understand that mistakes are made all of the time but it is what is done when fixing those mistakes that makes a company shine or look bad. As you could guess, the flight was oversold so there were no seats to be had. When I asked about my options, the Ticket Counter agent said that the problem would be finding award seats open. Can you believe that? I had to argue with her about how my family should be issued ANY SEATS not just award seats. So the agent has to call AAvantage customer service to have the award re-issued and the Service agent on the phone tells me (through the TC) that I have to re-pay the $15 service charge per award ticket! In the end they put us on a flight and we had to plead with flyers just to get two seats together, they did not charge me the $30 in fees that that wanted to, and they did not so much as say that they were sorry. Do you think that any of those people know why I fly? I don�t think so! I know that I only fly 50K to 80K a year, but AA is not going to get it any longer. Come next season I am switching. In fact, I read this thread because I have the same question myself.

Sorry for the rant�..

Miles for Nothing

ie. the FFP of Kerguelen Island International Airlines

- you�ll get 1�000�000 status miles as welcome bonus

- you�ll requalify as palladium member after having flown 99 inches

- all global alliances welcome you as gold / emerald / elite plus member

- upgrades from discounted eco to FC are free

- free, upgradeable flights for 1 mile

- systemwide FC lounge access

- one 40 feet flat rack cargo container checked luggage allowance plus up to ten standard chinese chicken cages carry on luggage

- free penguin suite stays (plus a Nebuchadnezzar bottle of Krug or Dom) at the local Orca Palace are guaranteed whenever you transit our hub (no blizzard whiteout periods)

BUT you�ll have to bring your application form personally to our local office at Port aux Fran�ais (IATA code ATM, 49.350� S/ 70.217� E

A few FTers, experienced with thousands of posts already answered you, so please do not expect a lot more from me. My input is even less than 2c worth

First,
read carefully this Thread

Second,
50K miles for 'nothing' ? It depends how you read it... 50K AA miles for just 340K Hilton Honors or 125K Marriott Rewards or 250K Priorirt Club or .., so if you already have the hotel points, you just have to convert them and you do not have to pay anything. I.e. you get 50K AA miles for nothing.
Your company needs you almost on the other side of the planet and it's placing (and paying) you in business/first class to go there... well, a carefull planning of routes involving the ones where there's a bonus promotion going on (for details refer to the FT or aa) and perhaps you place on top a Platinum challenge and you get a mile shower... for free. Basically someone else is paying for it and you maximize your return; you could end with 12K miles or with a lot more. How much? It depends from the time, your residence, the booking class (someone could even add the size of left shoe), so last month perhaps you could have obtained a grand total 40K but next one only ... who knows ? An example: a Biz fare ZRH-JFK R/T in May 2006 gave 10K bonus miles for European resident but now it's gone and the only thing on that route is a low 5K for a full economy R/T but only for N.American residents.

Third,
50K AA miles for really nothing... yes, with Monet01 suggestion

I have to disagree about AA being the best overall program. Last year I became a Platinum Elite member on AA and discovered ..... that it's still practically impossible to be upgraded on this airline. Unlike CO and NW which both automatically upgrade Elite members to business-first class, AA requires that members earn or buy upgrade segment coupons. Even with the coupons, on a long flight e.g., L.A. to NYC, I still cannot get an upgrade. Also, AA often refuses release seats so that "elite" members can use miles to upgrade revenue seats. All of this added to their simply awful customer service and cramped planes has led me to return my primary allegiance to NW (though on afterthought I should have selected CO which has an advantage because of their online tool for booking award travel).

To me, the best program is one in which you can actually obtain benefits e.g., ways to earn free tickets faster or easy upgrade privileges. AA definitely does not fill either of these aims.

Your odds would greatly increase at the Executive Platinum level. I've cleared 108 of my last 112 "free" domestic upgrade requests.

Welcome to FlyerTalk

I too have to disagree. Reason is I recently became PLAT again and have been immediately upgraded when booking last-minute flights (within three days, of course) on aa.com.

All I did was hit the submit the upgrade link on my reservation page and boom, I was upgraded.

It was then that I felt the power of the PLAT ^

To the OP, I have been on both UA and AA, with a dabble or two in Delta and US Air's programs. But AA has consistently delivered for me and my needs.