In my case:
- AF: elite perks lacking; once one of my primary FFP's, phasing out since AF joined Skyteam (prefer DL and KE's programs)
- CO: once a major recipient of my MR miles, resent steady 'enhancements', can now get credit on other 'Wings' partners.
- JL: ungenerous with discount fares, miles expire after 3 years, can get credit on other partners; moved out of Asia.
- LH: awards costly if not flying C/F, miles expire, can get credit on other * FFP
- NW: was transferred to KL upon moving to Europe
- TW: balance transferred to AA upon takeover (after 12 years of inactivity, thank you TWA!)


I am now down to 3 active and 3 semi-active FFP's, a number I feel comfortable with.

Obviously the 3 active ones are with different alliances, and the 3 others have lenient activity requirements (e.g. partner activity once every 3 years).


My first MilesBuzz thread... feel free to relocate if misplaced.

I don't abandon any Frequent Flyer Program.

I only abondon airlines.

And even in those cases I keep the programs active as occasionally I am forced to fly them sooner or later.

I haven't abandoned any. I'm hoarding all possible. You just never know when a flight opportunity comes up.

I was a Premier Executive w/UA for a number of years and after moving out of Chicago and not taking them as often they seemed to drop me like a hot potato.

They never got my change of address in their system properly and sucked the last 40k miles out of my account after 3 years of flight inactivity -- despite mileage being credited from partners. Of course, I never realized that while I still was receiving their Mileage Plus Dining (or whatever it was called) information I wasn't recieving activity statements.

You'd think they would have wanted to keep a fairly loyal customer.

I feel the same way. I've been either Premier or Premier Executive with UA for several years. A year and a half ago, I moved to FLL and switched my allegience to AA. I would think that UA would send me a "we miss you" type of letter, perhaps with a discount coupon or upgrade to entise my return. But I never heard anything from them. And yes, they have my updated address info as I still do have non-flight account activity.

DL:
In Jan, DL changed flight times on us and gave us the option of staying overnight in ATL on our own dime or cancelling the flights. We cancelled and rebooked on AA.

In June, my wife needed award travel on short notice to go to BOS. DL had one flight for 50K; AA had close to 10 options for 25K.

We converted our relatively small amounts of SkyMiles to HHonors points. Doubtful we'll fly DL ever again.

I had similar experience with UA's service - it was downright awful. They failed to credit miles and acted like I was bothering them to ask for it and also acted like they did not give a rat's a** if I went with another airline. I have abandoned flying UA too unless I have to. I kept the account open after moving 5k of the last 7k to Hilton just in case. At least for now, if I have to fly UA I would credit the miles to DL instead.

For me a few I'm afraid:

CO - the complaints about lack of international upgrades made me give up
NW - Oh that's right I was forced in to Flying Dutchman
TW - Oh yes they went broke
BA - The UK scheme is soooo mean that I credit flights to AA or QF now
AF - Who wants to fly AF anyway
DL - never fly them so used up 50% of miles on a F trip from LHR to JHB.

Hijacking this thread a bit, how did you use DL miles to fly from London to Johor Bahru? Wouldn't it have been easier to fly to SIN?

I left UA a year ago, and leaving my 4 years of PremEx behind. I was actually making a run at 1K until they bent me over the barrel.

I gave up after I had a flight cancelled on me and they refused to give a refund of the award miles I used for the ticket. When I called several times to protest, I was called a liar, a cheat, and several other nasty terms. Still looking for the best way to liquidate my stash of miles.

This year, I've been flying Southwest and AirTran almost exclusively, and get 2-3 free RT tickets a month.

Dumped America West some years ago... never was really impressed with the airline, the service was marginal, the flights constantly late, got food poisoning in FC once...that was enough.

Now very loyal to and active in AA (plat, going for EXP in 2003) & AS (MVPG), sorta active in UA (a nobody), fly once in awhile on DL and WN.

I dropped DL after I couldn't use my upgrades (U fares), and then they all disappeared on 12/31 (18 and 4 systemwides) with no compensation. Not a peep from them about a PM that stopped flying them.
I dropped NW after they refused to give me double mileage last fall saying that I had registered too late for the promo (even though I had screen shots saying I had registered in time).
I fly AA and AS most of the time and UA occasionally now.

Keep just as many active acsounts as I can.

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~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

I've stopped accumulating US Airways miles because of their uncertain future and the fact that we already have too many for comfort. As a matter of fact, since we have a ton of miles on various airlines, we've focused all of our non-flight earning potential toward accumulating hotel points.

I occasionally put some programs "on hold" but I have never dropped any. During the course of each calendar year, ff program changes constantly change the priority of the top 3 I fly. US is in sleeper mode since I made Chairman's Preferred a month ago. I am now working on retaining DL Platinum (very unlikely) and AA platinum (likely).