Which programs for DC based frequent flyer?
 

Hi all,

My sister lives in the DC area. She travels regularly for work, but her miles get distributed over a bunch of programs, so she doesn't reach elite status with any of them (except Amtrak). I'm hoping that any DC based people could share their thoughts on what combinations of programs would work best for her. I should mention, that since she's often flying for meetings, she does not want to play the connection game, and prefers non-stop flights whenever possible.

Where she goes:
She flies regularly to the west coast: SAN, LAX, SFO, PDX, SEA, YVR, PHX
Also makes some trips to Europe, particularly: LHR/LGW, AMS, FRA
And is starting to do some business in the midwest and southeast as well: MSP, MKE, MIA, FLL etc.

Who she typically travels with:
Amtrak (northeast)
Virgin Atlantic (London)
NW/KLM (Europe)
American/United/Northwest/USAir (West Coast/Midwest)

Programs she is a member of at this point:
Right now, she has accounts with Amtrak, Northwest, Delta, and USAir. The Delta account was basically picked up to cover travel to London on Virgin.


So, any advice? I would like to see her somehow close either NW or DL. DL would seem to be the obvious choice if she had another place to pick up Virgin travel. Also, I was thinking that maybe an Alaska Airlines account would be helpful, since they cover much of the west coast (with a stop in SEA), and also cover a wide range of the airlines mentioned above.

Thanks for your opinions.

I would say UA because of the direct int'l flights to all those destinations and most of the west coast destinations from IAD. Plus, US has decent east coast coverage out of DCA.

Nebratu:

Thanks. Yeah, UA was the obvious choice that came to me first too. Unfortunately, trying to get her to fly one airline and one airline only is more or less impossible. She doesn't yet realize that the extra $10-15 she would pay to fly her airline of choice instead of the cheapest option comes with lots of other benefits, and she'll be damned if she's going to listen to her older (and naturally wiser :D) brother. Also, many times there are schedule issues when there really are only a couple of choices. Therefore, I am trying to cover as many choices as possible through the least amount of FF programs, so that hopefully she can get status on one or two of them and can actually enjoy some of the benefits that come along with that.

I think that one Skyteam (probably NW), one *A (probably UA), and one OW (probably AA) would suit her the best. However, this combination leaves out Virgin Atlantic all together, I think, and the thing that was attractive about AS is that that would cover most of the Skyteam airlines as well as AA (though no EQM for CO, if I remember correctly).

Maybe instead of NWA, CO would be a better choice, because of their partnership with Virgin Atlantic.

Reminds me of this thread. Leading a horse to water & all that.

A different issue entirely! :p

On a more serious note, I'm interested in this as well. Since moving from ATL to ORF, I'm no longer bound to Delta. With the recent changes in the Skymiles program I'm considering shopping around. I wouldn't want to drive to the DC area for typical flights, but for an exotic getaway on an award ticket, IAD on UA or BA would definitely be an option.

Depends on who is paying, how important non-stops are and how flexible timing is. UA will have the most non-stops and choices, but be most expensive (IAD hub). AS can be very pricey transcon and does nothing for East Coast. US, DL, AA and CO will probably offer cheaper, longer, indirect options. I'd avoid NW. NW is so dysfunctional it's hard to believe they will last out the year.

If she can manage to fly mostly on *A, I think you should also look into BD.
you do not need as many miles to qualify for Gold and you can use the *A/*G
lounges within US for domestic travel.

I like *A (StarAlliance) better compared to the SkyTeam.

it's starting to get a little funny in dc.

While United is the obvious choice with nonstops to lax, sfo, sea and las, with the obvious exception of economy plus, the benefits arent that great unless she's going overseas or does an awful lot of traveling.

The upgrades keep getting harder and harder to get and my experience lately is that united's pricing is non competitive. It's not just $20 or $30 more. It's $50 to $70 more or more than that.

Virgin Atlantic's arrival could offer an interesting alternative. Although it's frequent flyer program hasn't been announced, I suspect flights this year will automatically be included and the planes are much newer and better than united's in coach --except for the economy plus

I'm increasingly focusing my attention on hotels

Thanks guys for the responses.

For what it's worth, work's paying for 95%+ of travel, although she searches for her own tickets (ie no corporate travel office), and almost always goes with the cheapest option that fits her schedule. The schedule thing is pretty tight, as often she has meetings to get to etc., and can't risk connections or long layovers (so non-stops are always preferred).

As far as how much flying...hard for me to tell, because she doesn't always tell me when she's going somewhere. But I would guess that she covers significantly more ground than I do, and I covered about 80k EQMs in 2007. I would guess that she flies to the west coast 1-2 times/month, the midwest/south 1-2 times/month and then overseas 3-4 times/year. I would guess that she would end up in the 100k miles per year area.

I hadn't thought of BD...I don't know that that would help her out much with the bulk of her flying (US transcons), and again, she tends to be on Virgin over to London, because often they are the cheapest.

MrAOK, I'm guessing you meant VirginAmerica? Are they planning to cover much ground from DC?

Thanks again!

As you can tell by my profile, I tend to disagree with you on this one :).
But, I'm not convinced that the NW program is right for a DC based flyer, even with a few trips to AMS every now and then.

Does she fly out of IAD? Many people in DC choose DCA or BWI...

I don't think yo understood the BD suggestion. Your sister would still fly UA but the miles would be credited to BD. If she made *A gold she could then use the RCCs for all her domestic travel gratis. The downside would be no E+.

Does she care about the extra legroom E+ provides?

where do you get best upgrades?
 

I'm also interested in this topic as I'm considering moving from FLL to the greater DCA area. I fly 45 weeks out of the year, mostly domestic and Canada and have been very happy with DL in terms of schedules, price and most of all, complimentary upgrades out of almost every city EXCEPT DCA -- I never get those. So, thinking about DCA as my base is perplexing, especially if I'll rarely get upgraded, even as a PM.

My question -- what other airlines that basically do a good job of covering North America out of DCA have better complimentary upgrade chances once you reach the highest tier? Thanks in advance for any input.

As a former DC resident (lived there till early '07), my suggestion would be US/UA. The OP did not mention where in the DC area she lives. That could affect the choice as well. For example, for someone living say, near College Park, IAD can be a pain to reach (thanks to the beltway, and the lack of metro connectivity to Dulles). Flying out of DCA is fantastic IMO. If she doesn't mind connecting in CLT/PHX, US would be a good option.

Another point in favor of US is that she can fly Virgin Atlantic and accrue US miles. Of course, you have *A. LH flies to MUC and FRA from IAD. Connecting in MUC, from most accounts, is way better than FRA.

She flies out of either IAD or DCA (not BWI), as she lives in Arlington.

No, I got it... I was just thinking that in terms of upgrades/E+/etc. access, the BD membership doesn't get her very far. RCC's are nice, but significantly less so if you have no layovers and are on a tight schedule.
We're a tall family (she's 5'11", and I'm 6'4"), and so leg room is as important as anything.

I switched from AA when they canned MRTC. For me at 6'3" it's a no brainer - UA because of E+. A couple of months ago I sat in the back on a transcon and was shocked at how I'd forgotten how cramped it was compared to E+.

Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?? I've got MSN-ORD-NRT-BKK-NRT-ORD-MSN coming up, and it's all in E+ (well, except for the MSN-ORD-MSN RJs). Should help a lot!

Seems she should pick one airline from each alliance if her flights are so distributed. No reason to have NW and DL different accounts simply because she flew that airline. They have reciprocity agreements for earning/redeeming. So breaking it down, the choice would be between UA/US for *A or CO/DL for SkyTeam. I wouldn't even bother with OneWorld as most of the places she flies to would involve multiple connections and AA does not discount on these routes, i.e. PDX, AMS, MKE.

Star Alliance argument
So now the arguments, why UA? Most non-stop and transcontinental flights in area and E+ seating helps.

Why US? Discounted flights and easier unlimited upgrades for elites as opposed to other airlines

SkyTeam argument
Why CO? Great partnership with Amtrak for earning/redeeming and Platinum status gets access to Acela lounge. Also good fares and codeshare with Virgin Atlantic. Lastly, domestic upgrades!

Why DL? Domestic awards do no require Saturday night stay and allow stopover enroute when flying DL plus partnership with Virgin Atlantic.

Why NW? Upgrades!

Lastly with European partners KL and AF, great connections all over Europe even from IAD.

I guess I would be more inclined towards CO or DL, despite having to make connections when flying domestically. But that is why you would have a secondary account such as UA.

So in conclusion, having to fly all over the map, it would be nearly impossible to limit to one airline for all your travel needs. However, if focused on alliances, you could keep your frequent flyer accounts limited to two.

Now the next question, what hotel partnerships are you looking at now?

idealflyer-
Thanks!
This is the kind of analysis I was looking for. She knows about the NW/DL thing, and the only reason she got DL at one point is because of their partnership with Virgin Atlantic.

She has top tier status with Amtrak (It's a lot easier when there aren't several carriers to choose from! :) ), so Acela lounge isn't a major concern. I think I agree with you that one from each alliance is the best approach. The only potential thought I had was choosing AS instead of one SkyTeam and AA (since AS covers both pretty well). However, then you get back to the upgrades/benefits argument, and I don't know that she'd ever see the benefits on AS because she doesn't fly them regularly.

So, I think so far, UA is in (I really don't like US, but then again, I don't live/travel up and down the east coast much).

The NW/CO/DL debate is a tougher one...NW/CO have reciprocal upgrades, which is nice. However, the partial EQM earning between them is kind of a pain in the butt.

I think that she should still get some account that would cover AA flights, since she will fly them every now and then (for example next week to California).

As far as hotels go, I'm just trying to get some momentum going with the airlines, and I'll worry about that later. Hopefully, eventually she'll get "it".

One more question - how many miles per year total?

The problem with multiple programs is achieving just low level status in each when in reality at least midlevel (e.g., *A gold) is where the best benis start to kick in.

I'm not sure, but I took a stab at it in post #9:
"As far as how much flying...hard for me to tell, because she doesn't always tell me when she's going somewhere. But I would guess that she covers significantly more ground than I do, and I covered about 80k EQMs in 2007. I would guess that she flies to the west coast 1-2 times/month, the midwest/south 1-2 times/month and then overseas 3-4 times/year. I would guess that she would end up in the 100k miles per year area."

What I should really do is see if I can get her to recall all of her flying in the last year (route, airline, etc.). That would really help, but I can already imagine the response I'll get just for asking.


I think that she could probably reach midlevel on one carrier and low level on another, or probably top-tier if she focused on one airline, but like I said... convincing her of that will be tough.

Here's the sad part given that being part of a single program at the top-tier would likely give her the best overall result.

Ain't that the truth...preaching to the choir my friend... Maybe if I can get a few hundred flyertalkers to say so, I can just point her to this thread!

Or taking the same flight as her sometime I could say, "Excuse me GBadger sister, could you please step aside so that I might get to the red carpet and stroll onto the aircraft while you watch with envy".