Merging airmiles
 

Hi,

I have a couple of airlines that I use (mainly forced by flight schedule and airport preference - BWI). I now have Oneworld (for BA), Star Alliance (for Virgin Atlantic) but now I am finding myself having to use Delta as they are the only ones (along with AirTran) who provide a non-stop flight from Baltimore to Atlanta. I can not find any programs that they join up with and I am also going to have to start using a car rental company and a hotel every week. For the next 30 weeks I am going to be travelling to Atlanta from home for 5 days a week and I want to maximize my miles awards.

Does anybody have any idea how I can merge all of the miles I have collected so far and keep building on them with Delta, a car rental company and a hotel chain (there is a Country Hotel & suites close and economic to where I will be working)? Normally I stay in a Hilton which is fine because I can put that on Star Alliance but I do not think this hotel will be convenient and I need to watch costs. Regardless of mileage incentive I want to keep costs down.

This whole airmiles thing just consumes way too much time and I need some help to streamline especially since I am about to embark on a lot of travel and expenditure.

Current programs enrolled in:

AmericaWest (USAirways)
British Airways (OneWorld)
Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance)
Delta Airlines (No group as far as I am aware)

Can I take the amounts of miles from all four of these in some program and merge them together. I do not care about upgrades to silver, gold and all that because I always seem to just miss the boat - last year I missed BA upgrade by a mere 20 points!!

thanks

Wayne

visit delta.com to find the partners and alliance...

welcome to ft...

Most airline miles cannot be converted or transferred. When they can, the rate is often insulting to intelligence--like "If U give me a $10 bill, I will deposit $1 into your friend's acct. & keep $9 as my fee :td:"."

DL is in Skyteam as is CO, whose miles can be converted to Amtrak, then onward to Hilton (25K per year limit applies.)

USAirways is also part of Star Alliance, but miles cannot be combined with SQ.

ADVICE: Just start fresh with DL & use up your other miles &or make sure to credit a car rental or hotel stay to each program once in a while, because most miles expire in 3 years of total inactivity. U never know where work will send U when the Atlanta project is done.

Have you considered flying out of Dulles or Reagan?

Delta is with Skyteam along with Continental, NW and others.

You can't merge them together because they're on different aliances.

BWI-ATL is 577mi one way. I don't see you as making too many miles on those segments. Airtran seems to count segments, not miles, so you may be better off using them and not using Delta.

Technically VS are not part of Star Alliance, although I understand how you may have been confused by this given your membership of the SQ programme (SQ own a majority share of VS and thus close ties exist between the two).

My interpretation is that you intend to accumulate miles for redemption use specifically on VS - why not sign up with VS? Domestic DL flights in the US will earn mileage on VS (however you will not earn status unless you are flying F). In addition the VS scheme has some pretty generous earning levels for hotels if you go with the Hilton option. Typically stays at Hilton hotels earn 1000 miles per stay minimum as opposed to 500 per stay with US domestic airlines. No affiliation with Carlson though. If you are renting with Avis or Hertz this could also net you 1000 miles per rental. With the 30 weeks planned this could net you 90,000 miles without too much difficulty, thats 2 x economy or 1 Upper Class reward between NY/BOS/IAD and London!!

The program may not suit you long term as a US resident (no credit card available I believe) but may be worth ten minutes looking at the VS website.

You have several options actually.

First, and perhaps easiest, if you like Star Alliance switch from BWI and fly from DCA. DCA is a US focus city, and thus several cheap nonstop flights originate from there daily. You could then use your Star Alliance account to build points for Virgin (assuming they are a member or close affiliate like you said, I haven't a clue). As a newly converted UA flyer I would advise you to fly through IAD. There is simply no better carrier than UA and I can garuntee you that flying as frequently as you are once you become Premier you will not be disappointed. As per One World there are no options for NS from any D.C. airport.

Second, just join DL SkyMiles and start gaining miles there. NW, CO, and DL are all domestic members of SkyTeam, as a Gold NW flyer I won't say its terrible, but there is better. Check out the SkyTeam website, though I can assure you they are teamed with all the major hotel chains (ie- Hilton, SPG, etc). You can gain 500 miles per stay that are credited to your SkyMiles Account, then you can directly transfer the miles to the hotels, or as noted earlier send them through AmTrak.

Hope that helps...