I have right now:
2 Delta accounts: one has 19,000 miles, the other one 2,000 miles
United account with 49,026 miles
US Air with 13,320 miles
Northwest with 10,461 miles
Is there any way to consolidate some of those accounts? My objective is to get free tickets to Grand Cayman March 2004. There will be 4 of us travelling (2 small kids): we can travel all together, or 2 + 2, or 3 + 1. I am accumulating miles on Delta with credit card right now, hope to have enough for 1 ticket there. But what about all the rest of the miles? United partners with US Air, but can I consolidate their miles? How does it work? I know that I can buy up to 15,000 miles to supplement each account. Also: if I have 3 FF tickets (1 on Delta and 2 on United for instance)how do I make sure that I can get 4th ticket on one of those two flights? It sounds too complicated, and I almost feel like this will be too difficult to accomplish. By the way, if it makes any difference, we will most likely travel from Chicago. Our second option is to use the miles for Mexico at the end on 2004.

Please advise brand new member of Flyertalk how to get most of it! TIA

That's what we're here for!

I consolidated two American accounts, call up Delta and ask them if you can consolidate the two accounts, thats a start.

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DC-10's Forever!

You will not be able to combine US and UA mileage balances.

NOTE: I'm assuming that you aren't doing a lot of flying so your mileage balances won't change much from the "normal" way: taking paid flights.

The UA Visa offers a 15,000 mile sign-up bonus for a $60 annual fee. That plus a quick switch to Sprint puts you right about at two free tickets on UA. (Use iDine to bump up to 70,000 if you need to. Also use iDine to goose your DL account - it's amazing how easy it is to pick up 5K or so over a couple of months.)

For the 4th ticket, you can either work on that US Airways balance by signing up for the credit card, doing iDine, and participating with their other partners, or you can just decide to do one paid ticket with the three free ones. Depends on how aggressive you think you can get to add 20K+ on US in addition to topping off DL and UA.

Since there are 2 small kids involved, you will probably want to book all four at the same time (because you can't change the names once you've ticketed) - either 3 UA 1 DL or 2 and 2 like you mentioned. Therefore, flexibility to pay for one of the tickets may make things a lot easier for you.

Another idea: once you reach the level where you have 3 free tickets, you might consider subscribing to AwardPlanner. For $49, you can tell them your situation, available awards, and have them do the legwork for you. They will come back with what's available, the fare for the 4th ticket (if paid), and lay out the options for you. No hassle on the phone with UA, DL, and US for you.

Thank you so much! Pinniped, you are great help. The only flight that I know of that I will be taking in the next few month will be in June, from IND to LGA, 2 people. Don't have tickets yet, but I am trying to get Delta or United. But these could come to late anyway, since my 330 days is sometime in May. I will check into idine and other suggestions you mentioned. Thank you again for all your help!

Also check out the UA, US, and DL boards on this site. They will be able to answer any more detailed questions you have and possibly provide more mileage-earning opportunities as well. Good luck!