USNA grad needs help
 

My son is stationed in Japan with the US Navy. He has a trip this month on KLM..Japan/AMS/Prague/and return. I told him to make sure he joined a FF program before he goes. Now next spring he will be stationed back in the states. Now I am wondering which program he should join. I assume that he will not be flying KLM much in the future so should he join Cont. or NW and would his miles for this trip post to both equally?

And to be young again...he has a "hotel" in Prague for $17 a night...I sure could not do that at my age.

Have your son join NW. (I'm gold on CO but wish it was NW.)

I'd agree, you may find that the overall policies and promotions at NW to be more flexible than CO at this time.

I learned a long time ago if the card is free join! Using USG travel you don't know who is going to be the contract carrier from year to year, it's low bid via GSA..

There is no GSA contract involved on this trip...this one is all annual leave...now why he would fly 15 hours to Europe when he could take his leave in Asia is another story...actually he has seen so much of Asia during the past 15 months I think he wants a change of pace.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

You can earn Alaska Air miles for flying on KLM. Alaska has a large number of good partners with whom you can fly using Alaska miles, including British Air, Quantas, and everbody's favorite, American Airlines. I recommend doing this because of the flexiblility of Alaska's program. And yes, you can earn Alaska miles other ways, including telephone and credit and debit card offers, and participating in MyPoints. Info on my site below. Click on Free Frequent Flyer Miles in the left menu, click on the main page, and do a word search on Alaska.

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The Personal Travel Experience of Gary Steiger - including how to get free frequent flyer miles on the web.

I've flown all 3 airlines. I would choose KLM but unfortunately people with US addresses cannot have KLM membership.

With that in mind, if your son is going to be stationed in the US, it really depends on WHERE he does most of his flying. If its on the left coast then neither CO nor NW will do much good.

In general the CO onepass program has had a lot of disgruntled flyers lately. NW on the other hand seems to being a good job in pleasing its customers.

My vote goes to Alaska, as the potential for earning AS miles can occur on so many different airlines.

This is, of course, regardless of whether you end up flying a single mile on AS.

Mike

I would 2nd..or 3rd Alaska... he can earn Alaska miles on AA, NW, CO and more and redeem on them too.

Being in the military (active, retired, some reserve etc) permits flying "Space A" for free. You can read some details at: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~oard/spacea/flightinfo.html . It now looks like you can reserve a seat. When I flew it, it was standby only. Good luck.

MisterNice

There is no limit to ONE airline FreqFlyer program. It is good to have the main stateside program, that serves your home area. Then join any other programs, that are not affiliated with it, when you have to fly other airlines, such as Japan Air! Just don't let the miles go unclaimed. You never know when you will add to them.

Prudent Flyer! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I too recommend NW. While AS does have a lot of partners, the big drawback is most of the award levels using AS miles on their partners are 5k to 10k higher than if you were a member of the partner instead. NW also has frequent bonus programs that allow earning a lot of miles in a hurry.

Have your son wear his uniform when travelling and tell the agent he is going to a new post (i.e. put it in the PNR when talking to reservations on the phone). It seems to me that on flights to military-type destinations, there is always some cadet-looking type seated in First. I think the FAs or gate agents upgrade, space available, thinking they are doing their a patriotic duty/favor or like the added security of a military type sitting next to the cockpit.

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.

CharlesMD: a great tip about the uniform but this three week trip around Europe will be done with only one back pack for luggage. So I am affraid he will look more like his semi-hippy father than a Naval officer when he boards the plane.

My advice.. I'm a CO Plat and I recommend NW; If I had to do this elite thing all over again I would select NW as my program of choice.

NW has more options and less restrictions. If your son does get stuck on CO, he can still use the CO benefits with his WP's program.

Good luck