Hello--

First of all, I apologize for any repetition in my post. I'm new to flyertalk and have come over from Fodors for advice. If there's a user-friendly searchable archive that I should be using instead, please let me know. When I tried the search option before, there wasn't enough space to enter all the terms for searching that I thought I'd need.

Here's the deal. I have recently gone from being a casual (3-5 times a year) flyer to someone who now travels two weeks/month for business. I want to make the most of my FF miles but I don't know where to start. I'm most interested in accruing miles for use toward upgrades and reward tickets. I currently am Silver status on Delta (and a Delta AMEX) and am approaching the silver status on NW. I also have FF account with American. The territory I cover from work ranges west from Massachusetts to MSP, then south to New Orleans, then up through the rest of the south and the eastern seaboard.

I don't make a lot of money and the company I work for is very small, so I need to be constantly mindful of my expenses--thus I can't pay full economy class fare when I fly. Where should I go from here? I know there must be tons of opportunities out there for me to be earning miles.

THanks in advance--and if I'm not already asking for too much, please be gentle with all of that acronym usage--I'm still learning.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

The search funtion here is very friendly, just go to the respective forum you are interested in and type in a search for that specific topic. I.e go to the Delta forum and type in "bonus miles" or "offers" or "milage earning card" ...etc....Repeat for next airline in that forum.

Altrenatively just go to the specific forum and scan a lot of past threads, clicking on ones that interest you. You will soon pick up a lot of very useful tips.

Flyertalk is set up pretty well with the individual forums so there is no one single forum to discuss the different programs you mention.

Cheers
J

First off, welcome! This is a great place to learn more than you ever realized you wanted or needed to know!

Second, you will get tons of advice, probably conflicting--go with what works best for your personal situation, of course.

My advice would be to start off picking a program between Northwest and Delta. Delta has gutted the status opportunities for low fares, as you probably know, so I'd pick Northwest, since you already have a "head start" with them and as of June 1(?) your Delta flights can accrue Northwest mileage anyway. A Northwest membership should cover Continental, Delta, Northwest, and Alaska (limited, but you don't mention the West Coast anyway).

Since it's a small company you probably want to keep an alternate membership, which would likely be either United or American. The benefit of United-USAirways is similar to the benefits of Delt-west-inental in that you can earn on USAirways, which is good for the Eastern flying you do. Of course, if you already have a lot in American, than maybe that will work better for you, but from a schedule point of view I would guess that hubs in IAD-DCA-PIT-PHL-CLT are more convenient than ORD-DFW.

So, for the flying that would be the first step. Then you can pile a hotel card on top of that, and a credit card if you want, and earn miles that way.

Since you mention that basically you want the miles for upgrades and rewards, it's tough to say which direction to head, because each affinity program has a different reward structure which may or may not benefit you. And I'm no expert in the hotel side of things as I usually priceline it or stay with friends anyway, so I'll leave that to others. If you're splitting travel nearly equally between airlines then you may want a credit card for each to split miles equally as well. Otherwise you may just want one credit card to earn the maximum miles possible on one preferred program.

Hopefully this will give you a start--enjoy!

[This message has been edited by MKE-MR (edited 05-14-2003).]

Welcome !!
I agree with the idea you should stick with NW since you are already silver with them, and soon on any DL flight you can have your miles put into NW. Also, as Silver, you are already eligible for EUA upgrades-- without having to use miles/points etc, and they can happen on even the cheapest fare or at the gate.
I would also suggest to continue to monitor this board as any news about cheap flights/hotels/discounts. That kind of info is generally is found here way before others get wind of it.

Where are you based out of? As mentioned, you should try and focus on one carrier to reach the highest possible status ... that being said, with all of your Eastern Seaboard flying, NW may not be your best choice ... I'm a bit biased, but you may want to consider US Airways if they are convenient from your hometown, they certainly have the best coverage over the region you describe next to Delta (whose Elite program is problematic at best at this point).

Of course, if you're in ATL or CVG, you'll probably just want to stick with DL ...

I fly out of Hartford, CT. In the last few months that I've been traveling, US Air has never had a schedule + price that would make me choose them over NW or AA. Of course when I'm going south, Delta makes sense for me, and I know I'm new to the world of flying frequently, but I've never had an unpleasant experience on Delta. However, after reading some topics here I'm beginning to think that their FF program isn't worth striving to achieve a higher level in (i'm currently silver).

when i'm not traveling for my job, i mostly travel to wisconsin to visit my family (wish midwest express would expand their market), mississippi to visit my friends, the Caribbean and (hopefully) Europe when I take my vacations. Because of AA's coverage to the Caribbean, I was leaning toward them.

thanks for all the help so far, y'all!

I'm down in Norwalk, welcome

I would advise you to concentrate on one airline at a time to get elite status with them. For me the upgrades are nice, but if I had a choice of giving up the elite check in line and priority boarding or the upgrades I would always fly coach. Having the status gets you the shorter line, gets you the priority boarding, etc. It will also get you a mileage bonus on any other flights you take after that.

Once you have it with one, you can either continue to get more miles with the bonus or you can get it on another airline.

You'll see lots of other advice here like stay in a different hotel every night (if you stay at one XYZ hotel for five night it counts as one stay. If you stay at a different hotel in the XYZ chain each of the five nights it counts as five stays), again with the goal getting elite status with the hotels. Free room upgrades, bonus points, etc.

Visit the Mileage run section here to see what people do to extend the miles for a trip. For some of them Bradley to MSP would involve stops in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, and then Atlanta. Racking up more then a few miles there.

Visit here often, there are lots of good people willing to help.

Welcome and enjoy your time (addiction) here. As mentioned above, pick your spots (favourite programs) and read read read. webflyer.com will also help greatly.

This is a freindly place, so do not be afraid to ask questions and before too long, you will be an FT expert.

Safe travels

My advice is similar to others above, with some differences.

1. Join all programs. Join even the small ones like Midwest (formerly Midwest Express), though you can join those just before your flight with them.

2. If you are travelling 2 weeks per month, let the schedule and, according to company guidelines or customs, price. Do not let getting miles rule your life.

3. As you become more knowledgable about which airline suits you best, then you can choose them if 2 airlines have similar price and schedules. Flying more on one of those suitable airlines will allow you more upgrades as you rise in elite status.

4. If you fly certain airlines rarely, consider depositing those miles in Alaska Airlines. American, Northwest, Continental, and others (Hawaiian? British Airways? Lan Chile?) flights get Alaska credit. Of course, many airlines miles credited to Alaska won't get you elite status.

5. Don't sell US Airways short. They are not a bad airline. They fly between quite a few cities on the East Coast and a number of Southern cities. They also fly to the West Coast from their hubs.

And when given the choice at hotels between miles and hotel points, always take the points. You will find that the awards and rewards are much more generous and available with hotel points than with FF miles.

Hi ejcrowe!! Welcome to Flyertalk!!

Fodor's and I "thought" you might find this place to be helpful

I don't have a lot to add to the other posters' advice, with perhaps one exception:
You might want to consider putting in an email address in your profile so that others could provide info to you through that route if they wanted to. To the extent that you're concerned about "spam" you could just use a mailbox that is used for nothing else.

In my time here, I think I've found that the most interesting part of FT is meeting others similarly situated, and I don't think I'd have said that when I first wandered onto the site!

Best wishes and Happy Traveling!, Dave

Try google.com's advanced search and limit site to flyertalk.com

UH!!!--Beckles, remember he did say he is travelling for a small company and cost is a big concern. As someone who travels frequently between NYC-CLT mid week, I don't think paying $700-900 for a coach US air ticket is what he has in mind.

I don't think you can make a blank statement like that. If you rarely stay at a particular brand take the miles in whatever airline you prefer. It will take considerably less time to build up to an award in the airline program then letting your points languish unused in a hotel program. Also if you are staying at a Hilton it is almost always better to double dip and take the 500 airmiles over a promo like double base points if the stay is for 1 night and the room charge is less than $125.

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"A day without Points/Miles is like a day without SUNSHINE"