Wanted to get your opinions here....this is the scenario. I'll soon be re-locating to SoCal... either Southern Orange County or Northern San Diego County. Anyway...assuming that I'll have access to LAX,SAN and SNA(Orange County?) what would you guys do as far as carriers go?...I travel just about every week out of EWR currently and I'll list my destinations in order of frequency so you can get a better idea of the situation.
MEM-TPA-SFO/SJC-SEA-PHX-SLC-LAS-ATL and of course I'll want to go back home a couple of times a year either to EWR/PHL.

I'm currently a CO PLAT and well on my way towards re-qualifying...and also a US Chairman's....already re-qualified until 2/2005 due to some carryovers we've had as Chairman's.
Some ideas....still fly CO/NW...don't know how difficult this will be being based on the West coast? Get comped PLAT to America West and start with them??? Fly UA and credit my US account?? What about Alaska?? Take AA Challenge and use LAX?? How do they tie in? I'll anticipate flying approx 125K miles/year if that helps any.....any help would be appreciated.

Edited to add: US possibly goes to * alliance. (UA,LH etc.)AND...
Domestic upgrades are extremely important to me....as I powerlift for a hobby....I'm about 6'2" 265 lbs and wide.


[This message has been edited by IMStill4Travel (edited 04-16-2003).]

I would try to maintain exactly what you have now.

MEM (CO/NW)
TPA (CO/NW)
SFO (AS, credit CO: LAX-SFO; SNA-OAK)
SEA (AS, credit CO)
PHX (UA, credit US)
SLC (UA, credit US)
LAS (UA, credit US)
ATL (CO/NW)
EWR (CO/NW)

Note that EWR connections on CO are often legal from west coast to places like ATL and TPA, which can really rack up the mileage without trying too hard. A couple out-of-the-way connections, and you may have more flown miles than you expect.

However, if you think you'll have 15K on AS metal only, try for MVP on AS, along with Plat on CO while maintaining Chairman on US (15K AS + 75K CO/NW + 25K UA/US = 115K). You said you expect 125K/year in flying, so your mix would have to be just about right to make that work, but you'd get AS MVP upgrades with MVP status.

NW & CO will get you where you need to go -

Flights out of SNA are limited no matter what carrier you choose -

LAX from North San Diego County or Southern Orange County can be an ordeal -

If you commit to LAX - Pick an airline and stay with it

However CO has the least hassle factor since it shares gates with Delta from T5 and United from T7

- 2/3rds of the passengers departing from T6 clear security in either T5 or T7 so it has the shortest lines of the eight entry points of LAX

Why is this?

Just a couple of thoughts here from someone who is in Southern California:

Yes, avoid LAX if you can, since you will be in South Orange/North San Diego Counties.

Traffic in the area is outrageous; being able to access an airport in a reasonable amount of time while not using the Freeways can be a God-send.

Keep in mind that there is also LGB and the airport at Carlsbad (CLD):

http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/dpw/airports/crq-cld.htm

HP flies from Carlsbad to PHX
UA flies from Carlsbad to LAX

At LGB you have, in addition to jetBlue of course, HP, AA and Horizon (QX/AS).

Now as a bigger guy, the thought of flying Horizon, or the services from CLD might not be comfortable.

If you need to access either SNA or LGB from southern Orange County, be sure to try the CA-73 toll road. It goes right to SNA (and then connects to I-405 for access to LGB) and rarely has the volume of traffic that makes Interstate 405 the unreliable road that it is:
http://www.tcagencies.com/home/maps.htm

Finally, remember that AS has inexpensive paid upgrades on its service and that the AS Mileage Plan has NW, CO and AA as partners:
http://www.alaskaair.com/mileageplan...rs_Airline.asp

Looking at your destnations, you may want to switch to NW WorldPerks so as to collect miles on AS/CO/HP and of course NW. That'll cover flying to MEM, LAS, PHX, SEA and EWR non-stop from SNA and allow you to use CLD or LGB. (AS flies SNA to OAK nonstop)

(You may find it easier to drive to LAS, its 4.5 hours doing the speed limit, and LAS airport security is notoriously bad)

Note there are serious restrictions on earning/redeeming with HP as a NW member.

http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/earn/airfl.shtml#americawest

Earning/Redeeming Miles
All America West operated flights between the United States and Mexico/Canada/Alaska as well as Northwest coded flights between Phoenix/Las Vegas and Los Angeles/San Francisco when connecting to Northwest Airlines flights to/from Asia.

and

Only tickets that have a Northwest code (NW flight number) will count towards your Elite status.

I agree with much of the good advice above. NW might be a better core program than CO, I bet NW would comp you based on your US status.

If you don't want to go with above strategy, AS Mileage Plan is a great little program. Its got some nice bonuses, unique awards, good upgrades, etc. Upgrade avail. intra-California seems to be good. Also you might be able to reach MVP with your AS flights perhaps aided by the occasional flight on AA, NW etc.

[This message has been edited by Duckman (edited 04-21-2003).]

Just wanted to say welcome to suny Soothern California!

I just wanted to add that i like CO to/from LAX from the east coast with a change in IAH. This is due to the fact that often I can find a 777 or 767 or a BF configured 757 on the IAH-LAX-IAH segment. Also if you are going to EWR and not using a CO transcon, then going through IAH will get you if you time it right a 777 or 767 or BF 757. As a CO plat, I've never been denied an u/g on these routes.

If I were you, I would pick UA (this is from an AA fan !). Seems like Carlsbad airport is going to be the most convenient to you and possibly SAN or SNA. From Carlsbad, you can fly to LAX and go to pretty much anywhere. UA also has regular service out of SNA and SAN although chances are you will have to connect at ORD or DEN.