what are your FF program plans/strategies for 2003?
 

My plans:

1. Continue to fly UA and make 1K once again. Take advantage of Winter low fares to get a lot of int'l travel in early in '03.

2. Pursue the AA PLAT offer as a backup. I am flying 10K miles in January on AA.

3. Fly NW/CO/AS/KLM for at least Silver once again.

In 2003

1) Fly NWA with CO as backup -- All flight miles to go to WP

2) Fly Delta if the NWA/CO Alliance is approved.

Fly the heck outta AA before they change the program and stop me requalifying for EXP.

After years of being a loyal DL customer, I am switching most of my business to NW.

Challenge to PLT on AA, and fly at least 50k to keep PLT until Feb 2k5. Maybe do EXP if I'm feeling insane.

I had a good strategy until now. I just made EXP, and suddenly have a huge amount of free time to travel. The problem is, do I burn the zillion miles I have accumulated, or take advantage of those VIPOWS they just gave me on paid tickets? I now understand the marketing genius of VIPOWs. Also considering a paid RTW ticket originating in Australia. Or should I just burn miles the whole way around the world? I'm sooo confused!

Stay home.

I am still undecided if I should go for status on a OW carrier or stick with LH as my status is good thru 02/2005

Tim

I will continue to fly Star airlines(mostly SK) and credit all miles into Air Canada Aeroplan. My goal in 2003 is to reach at least 70.000 miles in Aeroplan.

Continue to fly CO to maintain Platinum status.
Undecided if I want to accumulate miles on UA or US-- currently Silver on US (zilch on UA), and my job necessitates lots of travel EWR-CLT, but do I want US or UA status now that I have the choice????

Will redeem like crazy and am moving to cash rebate credit cards. Best deal I have found in on John Adam's page at www.money99.com. Effective rate is 1.64% cash rebate after factoring in "tiering".

Edit: (Additional info) The Fleet cash dividend rebate claims a 2% rebate, but the rebates are tiered. According to Jon Adams, it works out to 1.64%. You are limited to $500 in a calendar year (spend $30,500). Jon Adams is a talk radio guy in Atlanta who does a consumer finance show. When you apply, they wont' give you the specifics on the tiers until you get your cards. Let me know if you find any information that is contrary to what I have or if you find a better cash rebate credit card.

[This message has been edited by LemonThrower (edited 12-26-2002).]

Currently re-evaluating all airline, hotel, and credit card providers for next year due to various FF program and industry changes. Won't be able to maintain UA 1K and feel that financially they are in worse situation than US, so likely that most business will move to AA (where I am Lifetime Gold) or whoever is the least expensive for a given route.

Not as concerned about status anymore. There is no doubt that the value of status has dropped at most airlines and will likely continue to drop for a number of reasons:
1. Increasing use of RJs (no FC to upgrade into)
2. Increasing use of kiosk machines for check-in at even non-hub airports (less lines so no queue benefit to status)
3. Decreasing FC amenities (food has been cut, hot towels have been cut, even snacks are not as plentiful or as good)
4. Move to eliminate FC entirely (replaced with Business Class in many cases, thus fewer amenities - see #3)
5. Mileage devaluation (when miles were worth 2.0 cents each, PE 100% bonus would get you a 2 cent bonus on each mile. Now that miles are worth less, maybe 1.2 cents each, that same bonus is only worth 1.2 cents.)
6. Status for sale - Over the last 3 years many airlines, including UA, have offered some type of extension, waiver, discount, or outright sale of some levels of status (why fly when you can buy?)

Also, with mileage valuation tending towards 1.0 cents, I am also re-looking at my Starwood AMEX to assess if it is still worth keeping. Will have to check out LemonThrowers reference to that credit card...1.64% cash back is better than a mile.

The beauty of cash is there are no capacity restrictions or blackout dates, you can earn interest on it, and its generally does not depreciate unlike the devaluations in many programs.

I think status is still important, depending upon the airline.

It is easier to get upgrades with status, one way or another. Even on cheap fares.

You are less likely to wait in long lines.

You can use the elite security line when there is one.

It depends upon the airline of course.

The bottom tier on NW has proven valuable to me because I get a lot of domestic USA upgrades free. But the bottom tier on UA, Premier, doesn't seem to mean much on UA.

LemonThrower, we are now using the Citibank Driver's Edge card. We get 2% cash reserve built up on all purchases, subject to certain limits.

The cash is mailed to us when we buy or lease a car.

I think there is a $1500/year limit or $3000 total, something like that. The amount of rebate reserve appears on our statement each month. When we get to the limit we will start using a different card.

The cash rebate makes sense although in the USA it is taxable unlike FF miles. 2% cash back is pretty compelling though.