Help - drowning in miles!
 

Hi there,

This seems to be the right forum for this post; apologies if not, feel free to let me know or move it ;-). I need some help, and it's to do with a number of different programs, so not really relevant to any specific mileage forum! Here is my situation.

I am based in London, UK, and I have been collecting various miles for quite a while now, without any specific targeting or redemption. I just give the relevant card over and fly, without really counting. And see, that's really what my problem is.

I am a roving consultant. My work takes me all over the place, and it might be six months of twice weekly flights to Edinburgh or Sweden, or maybe four weeks in Sydney Australia or two months in Austin Texas. But I also go through phases of six months driving sixty miles each way, or taking a train to somewhere that aeroplanes don't go. So my "tier points" for various mileage accounts are sporadic at best!

I went through a phase where I got BMI Gold membership for a while, which was nice - got to use the lounges etc - but that went away when I stopped traveling that route (of course). Most irritating of all is the BA executive club - last year I got 590 points and missed silver! I am reasonably good with Hilton - gold member, and about 10 nights off becoming diamond. Marriott, on the other hand, managed to lose all of my points at the end of last year, and since I had no physical proof of them I had to start from scratch (and their customer service was no help at all, despite many calls and letters).

My current points stand as follows:

BA Exec Club: 48804 (Blue, 0 tier points, household account)
BMI Diamond Club: 92950 (blue, 4867 status miles)
AirMiles: 9421 (www.airmiles.co.uk)
Marriott: 19514 (Base membership)
Priority Club: 31089 (Base membership)
Hilton Honors: 201369 (Gold)

My travel patterns are usually on economy tickets (my company mandates taking the cheapest ticket when traveling on business). I flew to the states recently on American, and got no miles at all (I didn't realise until it was too late). It doesn't seem to make sense for me to collect BA miles, since they seem to be based on rewarding folk who travel in business most of the time.

What I want is to find an airline frequent flier scheme which will allow me to progress in the tiers easily, so that I get lounge access when flying. Ideally one that will reward me even when I take a cheapo flight. In fact, ideally two, one that is One World, and one that is Star Alliance, so that I can take whichever family has the cheapest flight.

What do folk suggest I do?

Cheers,

-simon

The AAdvantage program is, IMHO, the best. The challenges to gold and plat make for easy ways of getting free perks, and the wide variety of carriers makes it an earn-everywhere program. Considering that you fly BA alot, you are able to earn miles on AA by flying BA. Just check the fare code before you book, and make sure it earns miles. Most AA transatlantic's earn miles, even deep discount. I've flown many times for fares under $400 RT and recieved my 13,000 miles. I believe the only fare codes not allowed for transatlantic are Q and O.

United is probably the best in the Star Alliance. They offer a huge bonus upfront (3,000), miles for graduating college (if you have kids) and other nice perks. I can refer you to United Mileage Plus if you'd like, and you'll recieve 3,000 bonus miles if I do so, and I get a small bonus. PM me if you're interested.

Hope this info helps.

Simon:

Here's a good link for converting from one plan to another http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mil...rter/index.php

And you really need to visit that NW corner of Montana you love again!

FYI, Sidney, MT is actually in NE Montana.

So right you are! But the NW is sooooo much better......winter and summer!

Yes, it most certainly is, as long as you don't run into the Unabomber.

Kidding, I love the area, go there often.

Not an answer to your question, but here are two tips:

1. Periodically do a printout from the web page of each program, showing your account info/points. And, in particular, do that at the end of Dec. each year.

2. Always keep your boarding passes. If you still have the AA BP's you can fax them in and get credit. Even if you don't have them, if you have the ticket number and flight numbers, you may be able to get the credit. Login to the website, from the side menu choose AAdvantage/Request Mileage Credit.

Of course excluding Transatlantic.No AA miles flying BA transatlantic, no BA miles flying AA transatlantic.

My suggestions mirror many above, with some slight modifications.

1. Get an AAdvantage number.
2. Get a United MileagePlus number.
3. Pick ONE hotel chain and get a number.

For all your OneWorld flights, present your AA card. For all your Star Alliance flights, present your MileagePlus card. For all your stays in the ONE hotel chain you pick, present that card. For all stays in other hotel chains, present the airline card of your choice, probably the one that you have flown on least recently (they almost all allow crediting directly to airline programs)

This seems like the best plan for a non-neurotic frequent traveler, who wants the most perks with the least effort. When it comes time for some vacation travel, hopefully you will have enough in one of the airline programs and your chosen hotel program to stay. If you're short on hotel points, transfer some out of the other airline program (usually easy enough, with little to no penalty). Vice-versa, if you're short airline points, either transfer some from your hotel program or try to find a trading partner here in Coupon Connection (which, unfortunately, you'll have to wait at least 90 days and 90 posts before you'll have access to).

Best of luck!

Ideas on Hotels
 

I would stick to Intercont hotel or Hilton. My current preference is Intercont. If you can wangle it through work purchase their ambassador status which will give gold and other up-grade advantages within Intercont hotels. Pick-up their visa for an extra 10k point and with your stays you'll very quickly make platinum. There are codes at the start of the forum for stay 5 nights and get an extra 10k.

For your uk travel they have a wide range hotels even very local with the HI express. I made plat in 8 months which extends the ambassador up-grade benefits across all of the brands.

If you have an Emirates skywards number check out the skywards forum and the post on Hilton H Gold. I'm silver with Skywards and the link worked giving me gold.

Cheers

Not quite sure about BA BMI and Virgin, but I think you can only get lounge access if you fly in Business or First (which you don't) or buying a club membership, or being a LH Senator will get you in. Most memberships cost around $300-$400 US so that might be a solution if you travel enough and want to take showers, snack, drink, etc.

I pay for my AC membership every year ($250 at my status level), and there's not a month that goes by where I'm not thanking myself for doing it. I'll tell you, the free cheese and crackers can save you a bunch of money if your always buying those $10 sandwiches in the terminals. Of course there's no replacing a good sit-down meal.:p

CF

Ok, will sign up for AAdvantage. Considering the most important thing for me is status, will all non AA flights be counted towards status? Including towards the challenge?
Bah, I signed up to them last night :-( I assume it's too late to do this now? Also, the same questions apply - do flights on other *A partners count towards United elite status?

Many thanks for the replies!

-simon

Thanks for this. I will be doing printouts every year from now on! Regarding boarding passes, unfortunately my company demands that I send them the originals in order to claim any expenses, so the only way I can ever get miles is by specifying an FF number when I book and check in. Since I specified BAEC (of course), I got nothing.

Cheers,

-simon

Hi there,

I must say I'm not a big fan of holiday inn express - they're about fourth or fifth on my list ;-) I'm sure my work won't pay for me to have any special priority status :-(

I'm Hilton Gold already, earned the hard way, have been for years, so I don't need to use Emirates (although I've flown Emirates to Australia and thoroughly recommend them). It's quite depressing how easy it is to get Hilton gold at the moment. My company got a special "deal" from them where everyone who stayed for four nights or four stays automatically got gold - and this after I did it properly! It was quite depressing to watch. Never mind, hopefully I should make Diamond this year!

Cheers,

-simon

This sounds sensible. I didn't realise that I can just present a FF number to a hotel. Thanks for that!

-simon