My wife and I just moved to Boston. She flies fairly regularly for work and we were stunned by the lack of direct flight to places out of BOS...or less than ideal planes such as Delta MD-88.

So any suggestions on the best airline with the most domestic destinations out of BOS with the best FF program?

FYI we used to do USAir out of Philly for comparison and while PHL is awful and USAIR not ideal there were a ton of flights and she often got upgraded for free or at least got exit row seating.


thoughts?

Boston is not a hub for any airline so the question should be which airline has a hub which is on route of the destinations you and your wife fly most. If you fly a lot to the west coast United, AA or NW could be ideal for you with its ORD or MSP hubs. If you fly South a lot United or Delta with IAD or ATL. Continental with its hub in EWR is a choice, too.

Other idea would be to join a Skyteam airline so you can earn miles on CO, NW and DL. In this case maybe Delta because I think Boston is a focus city of Delta if I'm right.

My recommendations are only to help you to get an idea on what base you could choose a FF program and not final.

I agree completely with the above reply - it really depends on where you are going and your tolerance for stopovers. There is no airline that is going to be able to get you everywhere nonstop (though all combined, you can get to most major cities without stopping). I have gone the route of actually having my miles on 2 airlines (DL and US) as they together serve the majority of my destinations. It also means that only AA is left out from my mileage earning.

One thing - the new Terminal A (DL and CO) is amazing compared to Terminal B (US, AA, AC, a few others) and Terminal C (B6, UA). Terminal E (NW and international arrivals) is OK. If you are a stickler for having a nice terminal and/or club, then DL is the way to go (CO only flies to EWR,IAH, and CLE).

If you can tell us a bit more about your common destinations, that would probably enable us to better inform you. Welcome to BOS!

Wirelessly posted (Treo 650: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D060; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

AA and UA have some non-stop flights out of BOS to the West Coast. Delta's operation isn't bad either and the terminal is nice.

It is quite possible to be a CO flyer from BOS but you do have to deal with transferring terminals airside.

We're AA flyers and pretty happy with it. The B terminal is rotten, but security usually isn't too bad and it looks like they are adding some restaurants and shops (nothing great) airside. A lot of MD-80's out of Boston, so not much in the way of better planes. Some better options flying to over the Atlantic, though.

Delta's terminal is fantastic and all the interaction I've had with DL employees in Boston has been great.

It's a close call, but I think I'd stick with AA just due to the better partners. It really depends on where you fly, though.

Mike