Hello,

I recently took a new job with a relocation to Phoenix, AZ. I'll be travelling via air 3-4 times a week, most of the time from or to Phoenix but also from various airports, 90% of the time in the west.

I understand US Airways and Southwest are the largest airlines operating out of PHX. I'm looking for a frequent flier program that will give me the most upgrades and free tickets possible, in that order. I'd love to fly business/first class some or even most of the time once I get to a high enough membership level, and free tickets would also be nice.

Southwest, as I understand it, only offers free tickets, as they don't have a business or first class. US Airways does upgrade, but from my research here it seems that it can be very difficult to redeem awards.

My flights will be paid by the company and booked by me. I have some freedom with choosing an airline - as long as the flight I choose is within $100 - $200 of the best price around that timeframe it's not a problem to take it.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! This forum has been a great resource in helping me prepare for my new life on the road.

US Airways/America worst should be your choice since Southwest does not offer first class or international destinations. Get elite status with US Air and get unlimited ugrades if space avail

If your destinations are mostly LAX and SFO, then consider joining United Mileage Plus. With UA, you can still pick up *A miles for any US flights. I find Terminal 2 much more tolerable than T4. That is, if you can find T2. PHX is a mess.

However, if your destinations vary then direct flights on US are hard to ignore.

America West/US for travelers based out of PHX is a good experience usually, with the normal caveats for Spring Break and the Descent of the Snowbirds.

I found that the auto-uprades worked very consistently when I was not ticketed in F, and the HP folks in PHX were generally good to deal with.

That being said, the ghetto Terminal 2 is ugly but very easy to deal with if SFO and LAX are you only destinations, so give a thought to Ted if that is the case - Rar!

I'm in a similar situation, ( transferred to phx in November) - I'll add a counterpoint, based on what I've seen so far -

I fly from sky harbor to CA at least twice a month, then a couple of hops to ABQ and ELP, and I've been popping back to DTW as well. I tried northwest, because they have a hub in dtw, and america west, because they have a fairly decent presence in phx, and American, because they've got a presence all over. by "tried", I mean I flew half a dozen rt's on each airline. America west was ok but their online seat selector never worked for me, and when I called india to ask for an aisle seat,they put me in a middle seat even further back than the computer assigned - and mostly rj's for their short hops, and northwest gave me the worst seats on the bus( and by worst seat, I mean last row on a 757, middle seat!), even though I flew 16k miles in just a couple of months with them, american was nice, but again really bad seats, and alot more $$ per trip.

What good is "elite" status if I've got to spend a year riding on the wing to get it?

I started using southwest, and even though there is no first class, I have never gotten a seat as bad as what the other guys were giving me. In fact, I almost always get into the first five rows, and either an aisle or a window, and 50% of the time the seat next to me is empty.

There is an extra step with southwest, olci 24 hours before departure, and showing up @ the gate 45 minutes before the plane takes off.

I've shown up late for a flight a couple of times on southwest, and each time I was put on the next flight @ no cost to me. And these seats are still way less cost than anyone else in the air, even if I buy the "refundable" tickets.

Free tickets are earned very quickly on southwest, with all the short hops I take, I'd have to do 20 round trips on anyone else to get a freebie, but with southwest, it's only 8, and even less if they have a promo going ( double points for trips to or from ca currently). Also,you can get .5 credit for your car rental, and .5 for your hotel stay. Many of the people I know who travel southwest have free tickets they don't know what to do with.

Make your own choice, but don't dismiss Southwest without trying it, you may be surprised. The best part of flyinf Southwest is that my seat assignment is 100% up to me. If it's a one hour flight, check in the night before and show up 5 minutes before departure with an "A" boarding pass and get a decent seat. If it's a 4 hour run to DTW, check in 24 hours early, and show up 1.5 hours early, and stand @ the gate if necessary, but be pretty much guaranteed a front-row/bulkhead/exit row seat no matter how many "platinum elites" are on the plane, even if my ticket was a $39 "ding" fare.

Welcome to PHX!

Remember that all UA flights out of PHX (except to IAD) are on Ted, so there is no F.

I'm thinking that US/HP may be your best option. Reason being that you can earn miles from PHX on US/HP/UA flights (Star-Alliance.) This will give you more options. When connecting, you can do PHX-LAX/SFO on US/HP/UA and then connect on a UA flight to your final destination within CA.

Finally, although US/HP/WN are all in Terminal 4 (the largest and busiest,) UA is in Terminal 2. For hanging out, Terminal 2 is a dump; however, for parking, getting to your flight, etc., it's a breeze as it only serves UA, CO, and AS. There are a lot of people that are going to miss the convenience of T2 when it is demolished.

I have to agree with this post. While I don't fly America West/Us Air exclusively, I am not one of the "haters" often found on the US Airways Flyer Talk site. My main caveat and problem with them is that they fly out of Terminal 4( as does Southwest) which should be avoided when at all possible.
I disagree strongly with the poster that was pushing Southwest. Don't like it, don't find them amusing or fun and hate all variations on the cattle call( yes I know it's somewhat better than it was -- still don't like it). Plus I don't find that it's consistently much cheaper than US Air.

On another note, be sure to explore the off site parking lots which are a much better deal than Sky Harbor's long term lot( which is the size of a small state).

Welcome to PHX

WN has its good and bad aspects... and it is convenient out of PHX... but there is no first class and no international (premium cabin) awards. There is also no elite security, seat assignments, or lounges.

Star alliance out of PHX is the way to go. One World and SkyTeam only fly East from PHX, so if you need to go West your only real non-*A option is Alaska, but that only helps you if you need to go to WA or OR.

Between UA and US out of PHX, I strongly prefer UA.

With UA, you can get just about anywhere in the country... yes, you have to go through LAX, SFO, DEN (or IAD)... but the trade-offs are worth it imo.

With US you get lots of non-stops out of PHX and there are F seats on most of those flights - but they are not always easy to get and the quality of their F product is way behind UA.

With UA you get T2, which is super easy to deal with - quick easy parking, short elite security line, less chaos and shorter walks. It is also rare to have to wait for a gate to open up at T2 on UA, unlike with US.

With UA you get free standby for earlier and later flights. With US, you have to pay to do confirmed standbys and regular free standby is only available if the flight you want to get on is sold out or over sold.

When you really need to get somewhere non-stop or at a certain time and UA can't get you there within your constraints, then you can take a US flight and not lose EQM/RDM earning.

Also, UA stays very price competitive out of PHX, so you shouldn't have much problem sticking within your travel policies while preferring them.

Also note that flights to LAX are on Skywest CRJ-200s. Although the flight is only an hour, they're really uncomfortable.

Since you're flying mostly in the west, I think US is going to be the least problematic. You won't get any upgrades at all on Ted or Skywest.

But at least Ted has a huge E+ section... which blows away Y on US when your upgrade doesn't clear b/c of lots of higher level elites and $50 upgraders.

Thanks for all the welcomes to PHX Sounds like a wild airport I'm getting myself into.

So it sounds like *A is the way to go. I appreciate the SouthWest suggestion, but I'll probably stay away from them. I didn't know that UA and US were both *A. I actually didn't know *A existed until now. I already signed up for US's dividend miles program, so what's the best way for me to combine my UA and US flight miles into the *A program. Should I sign up for UA's program as well? Will I still get to the top tiers of the UA and US programs and as quickly?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm brand new at this and I want to make sure I do it right.

Thanks again!

You can't move miles between UA and US' programs... but they are both *A members and you can use their miles to redeem awards on all *A airlines (and mixes of *A airlines).

I think most people would agree that it is best to concentrate on only one program within one alliance until you have reached top-tier in that airline. The only exception that might make sense is if you are doing a lot of flying and some of it has to be on UA it might be worth crediting 25k to UA to get to premier so that you can get E+ access, however you can just buy that for $299/yr and then continue crediting everything to US - which would be better to do than give up top-tier on US.

I would credit to whatever airline you are planning on flying most, as each airline will give you the best experience interacting with them if you are an elite on their airline - from phone support to upgrades to irr ops.

You can just give your one account when you book your flight. So if you have a US account, you give that account number when you fly UA. You're much better off putting the miles into one program.

Are you sure about this? I've read that this is not possible -- that what gets you E+ seats in their system is the purchased upgrade to your UA MP status and that once you put in your US number, it no longer recognizes the status you bought, putting you in E-.

Has anyone done this successfully?

I fly to PHX a few times a year for liesure purposes. I take American either via DFW or ORD. Obviously, my elite status on AA helps.

May I suggest that you visit the individual airline forums and ask about peoples' experiences at Sky Harbor? That may give you a better idea.

By the way, I think the area is beautiful! I stay in Scottsdale when I visit.

Watch out for the cholla cactus.