Please Help Me Find a Frequent Flyer Program
 

Hello All - Really hope you'll be able to help me out here.

I just started a new job this year, traveling 100% as a consultant. I've been flying corporate jets for the past decade plus, so even though I'm a frequent flyer, the whole commercial part of it is new to me.

I live in Portland, Oregon, and travel throughout the US and Canada with South America and other International travel to hit occasionally. My biggest struggle is being in Portland, and only having Alaska with any large number of flights out, but they're almost all on the West Coast. I'm traveling to Toledo, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Memphis, Boston and other points in the US. For the next foreseeable future (2-3 years) the majority of my travel will be to Canada, Calgary and Toronto, but I'm also trying to pick up some clients South of the border as well.

I can't seem to find an airline to commit my loyalty to in order to accumulate the most miles. If I join one and have to fly on other airlines, can I apply the mileage to the one I joined, and get 100% of the miles credited?

I'm looking to join Northwest Airlines WorldClub, only because I like their accommodations the best, and I can use the majority of other club rooms along the way, even if I'm not flying on them at the time.

I would prefer to fly NWA the most, but they have hardly any flights out of PDX. Also looked into Air Canada, but they are very limited on flights within the US.

My biggest concerns are accumulating the most miles to cash in for leisure travel internationally, and to get upgrades when flying. I'll be elite almost instantly, and will be able to gain and maintain Platinum without any problems.

I sure hope someone will be able to help.

Thanks so much!

p.s. any good books any of you can recommend on Road Warrior Travelers like me/us?

Welcome to FlyerTalk, FlyMeToBelize

Alliances and Partnerships are your friend.

Yes, you can credit several airlines (but not all of them) to one program.

For your primary program, I'd suggest either NW or Alaska (AS). NW is in Skyteam, which means you can credit all your flights on Continental and Delta to NW as well, and they'll count toward elite status. Also, although AS is not in Skyteam, they have a close partnership with NW, they codeshare a lot, AS flights earn EQM and elite bonus RDM in NW WorldPerks, and NW WP Gold and Plat members get e-certificates for upgrades on AS.

So NW's program has you covered for earning from and redeeming on 4 significant US airlines including the dominant carrier at your location as well as AeroMexico giving 5 in N. America, Copa in Central/South America as an associate, plus all the Skyteam partners in Europe and Asia and Kenya as an associate in Africa.

Alternately, join AS Mileage Plan. Your NW, CO, DL flights count with them. They also have partnerships with some oneworld carriers, including American, BA, Qantas, and LAN, so you could be in the interesting situation of miles earned on NW flights getting you a ticket on British Airways to Europe or LAN to South America.

If you're flying a lot into Canada, you probably want to join a Star Alliance program as well for earnings on AC. Either AC's Aeroplan program (AE), or United Mileage Plus. I'd probably go for UA's program since there may be times you need to fly a *A carrier, and despite its flaws, UA MP is probably the best of the three North American programs, especially for a 50K/year *A flyer. UA gives partial or full RDM and EQM on some AC fares that don't earn any on AC itself (like N fares to Europe). UA also gives a 100% RDM bonus to mid-level 50K/year Elites (Premier Executive, known as 1P around here.) for all UA flights, all US flights, and all US-Europe Lufthansa flights.

US Airways program is horrible, as is the airline. US only gives a 50% RDM bonus to its 50K/year elites, doesn't credit AC N international fares, doesn't give RDM bonus on LH. But sometimes you might need to fly them, especially in the Southeast via their CLT hub or in the southwest via PHX. You can credit those flights to UA.

Also - if you can get 50K EQM/year booked to UA, you get mid-level UA but top-level alliance status, Star Gold. That gets you free lounge access outside of the USA on coach tickets. UA and US *G members don't get domestic lounge access in the US unless they're on an international itinerary, but do get it on international including flights to or in Canada.

So by that calculation, two memberships, with AS being your primary program and UA being your second, covers you for all the major US and Canada airlines along with many international partners.

Or with NW as your primary, same calculation except that you have no place to earn or redeem on the oneworld carriers. If you don't expect to fly AA/BA/IB/LA/CX etc. very much or at all, then I'd go with NW and UA. If you do expect the occassional oneworld trip or want access to oneworld carriers for awards, then I'd go for AS and UA. Note that if you go for AS, you won't have any Skyteam alliance status, even though several Skyteam airlines do earn and give some benefits in AS.

If you go with NW and UA, try to do 50K on *A along with your 75K on NW. You'll have top-level alliance status in two major alliances that way.

Northwest hands down. It will get you plenty of places domestically and you'll get upgraded a lot automatically. Also, AS is a strong partner of theirs as is CO. That will mean a ton of upgrades. CO has a good route structure for south America. Your best Calgary option is AS. There is no non-stop to Toronto, so you'll just fly through MSP. Stay away from UA and AA. Their domestic products aren't that great, their lounges are terrible and you'll have a lot more benefits in NW.

Welcome to FT FlyMeToBelize!

Well, firstly, thanks for giving us all the information. So many people start out with a request like yours but fail to give the details. You have informed us of things that can help us help you.

I would also suggest NWA, but if possible--and I know it may be not your first choice--have some mileage in 3 airlines. Why do I say this?

There are basically 3 major alliances/airline partnerships. NWA is in the Sky Team, UA (while I agree what's been said above) is in Star Alliance, and AA is One World. (Mark, I should just tell the OP to use AA hands down :D:D:D)

You say you do wish to get status quickly on at least one, but if you have options with the others and start building in one per alliance from now, you will have more choices available to you in a pinch. ie, should you need to fly to X and do NOT have FF miles in an account, it would have been great had you saved some up while you were doing the bulk of your business travel.

That being said, what people have told you above is great advice. I would only add that you learn a lot about MILEAGE RUNS (there's a whole section of the forum dedicated to that) and CREDIT CARDS. I would--if you havent already--obtain and use a couple mileage earning cards and one I lilke the most is the STARWOOD AMERICAN EXPRESS.

There's also whole threads in FT about SPG (Starwood hotels) and the reason why it's popular is that you can use them to redeem for excellent hotels that happen to have very flexible redemption policies as compaired to other chains, but also because you can often convert points earned on your SPG account into airline miles!

Whichever airline you choose, get the credit card that helps you earn miles on it. UA has a Chase Visa, AA has the Citi Mastercard and NWA has a US Bank WorldPerks Visa. To get the best SIGN ON PROMO, dont just go by what you see in a seatback flyer or the company web site, rather, visit THIS thread and it will also help you with lots of cool travel and flight tips!

http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm

The author, PGary, is a regular poster in FT and other forums.

I would also participate in airline and mileage promotions. You can often find those in related links in airline-specific threads in FT. Do some browsing. You can also find those on PGary's site as well as on the airline sites you join.

Back to why 3 airlines;

I like AA because they have excellent redemption rules for award flights. One such perk is that you can start trying to book a flight with a phone agent and if you are short miles or they dont currently have a segment available for award travel, they can HOLD your itinerary for up to 2 weeks at times! You can just keep calling back in and if something comes available and your miles show up too, voila! They will continue to book for you and you'll often get what you wanted even if it's busy season!

I like NWA because of much of what was said above. I usually find they have newer planes and for me, I have found redemption for overseas travel to be pretty good over all. With NWA if you dont see an award flight on their website, call them and sometimes you will find they still do have some seats available! You'd have to pay the telephone booking fee but it's worth it at times.

WIth UA, I find if you are going to choose between them and US Air, you have better options for mileage use with UA.

My information goes around the horn here, but hey, as we can all eventually agree, there IS more than one way to skin a cat. Good luck and keep pressing!

;)MM

My Appreciation!
 

Thanks so much for ALL your great information!! I did in fact go with NWA as my primary carrier, but will be keeping my stand alone accounts with Alaska and Air Canada as well. I've also gone with Marriott as my primary, with SPG as my back up (was already with SPG) because many of my clients are in areas that don't have anyone in the SPG family in which to stay.

I welcome any and all additional advice.

Thank you again!!

You Have Chosen Wisely
 

Hello and welcome to FT!

Since you only need 75K to reach Platinum on NW (versus 100K for most others) and the upgrades at that level are as close to 100 percent as you can possibly get, I say 'kudos' for your choice. PDX is a good NW city and they have flights to Asia, as well, with some other possiblities going East.

Your AC gives you the *A that will come in handy and AS, in addition to being a very good airline, covers OneWorld, so you have it covered.

For those times you can't use Starwood, you may want to look at Hilton, too. They allow you to double-dip and take points AND airline miles for stays, so a double-dip may be one way to send a transaction to an airline program you may not use so often to make sure that your miles don't expire. But the Starwood perk of trading 20K points for 25K airline miles still remains one of the better bonuses, IMHO.

As you hone your 'road warrior' skills, don't be bashful with sharing tips and deals you may find with the rest of the community.^

"Whichever airline you choose, get the credit card that helps you earn miles on it. UA has a Chase Visa, AA has the Citi Mastercard and NWA has a US Bank WorldPerks Visa. To get the best SIGN ON PROMO, dont just go by what you see in a seatback flyer or the company web site, rather, visit THIS thread and it will also help you with lots of cool travel and flight tips!"

Sign on promos are nice, but you might want to consider a cash back card if you can. Some of them will give you 3% back on your top 3 categories of purchases. Lets say you spend 3k/month on hotels, restaurants and flights, you'll get $1100 cash back over the run of a year. It sounds like you'll have plenty of points for flights, so that will give you flight+spending money. Add in the Marriott points and you'll have a nice vacation at least once per year more or less free.