Having just flown on Continental from Newark to Delhi roundtrip (awful awful economy seat) -- I have been baptised in the way of the way of the frequent flyer. The first class seats on that flight were 10% full, I joke not. And the only way I could get an upgrade from Economy (paid for on continental.com) was pay $4,500, I believe EACH WAY. I offered $1,000 and $2,000 and Continental rep wouldn't take my money. I was shocked shocked -- as I joke not, maybe 1/4 seats in 1st were occupied on both legs.

But I was told as an Elite I would have been upgradable.

So now, with the goal of becoming a savvy traveler at the beginning, optimized in one shot, what is the best strategy for me to become a savvy loyalty guy? Which airline do I want to give me business to because they 1) have good product and 2) have good upgrade ability (I have seen people complain about CO here). Should I switch my personal card? Or upgrade my corporate card?

About me:
1) Frequent business traveler (once or twice per month) between NY/Chicago
2) My firm had the AirPass program for American, but that is ending this month
3) 175,000 points on Amex Gold Preferreds card (charge 75k annually)
4) 15k miles each on American (my current NY/Chi carrier) and 15K on CAL (from international trip to Delhi)
6) Recreational travel to international (~2 a year) + vegas (1/yr) and LA/SF (1/yr)
7) Have historically purchased most of my rec tickets via Kayak.com service...

--> do I want to get the Amex Platinum?
--> should I transfer my Amex miles to CO and start flying CO?
--> should I just focus on AA? And switch card to AA friendly card?
--> Amex partners with Delta Skymiles.. but I dunno
--> Is there another credit card I should be using instead of Amex
(I'm not beholden to them.. the Gold services are neglible in my opinion)


MANY MANY THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE!! ^ ^

Are your goals for upgrades only? Domestic or international? Are you interested in premium cabin awards?

I am partial to UA and then to AA. I really like the *A network partners and the routes they offer. This is a personal decision that you have to make. I'd recommend spending some time reading the forums of the various US legacy carriers so that you are able to make an informed decision. With just flight 1-2 times a month domestically, you might have some difficulty obtaining the highest elite tier (generally 100,000 miles or 100 segments) in whatever program you choose. You might have to take some side mileage runs or leisure vacations depending on the routing of your business trips. Where will your trips originate from?

Are you interested in hotel programs as well? Hilton, Starwood, Intercontinental, and Marriott are often thought to be the best programs. Each program has it's own pros and cons. What would you be looking for in a hotel program?

My advice would be to spend time reading the forums and absorbing as much as you possibly can. You'll look back a year from now and be amazed at how much you learn and how much your thinking will change. You will also get some great advice from other flyertalkers in this thread.

Welcome to FT!
Halothane

With Continental or Delta I figured I could transfer my American Express points over to just buy Elite access. 1 membership rewards point = 1 mileage point in these programs. And then going forward, I would just try to fly those airlines as much as possible for work and recreation.

My main interest in the elite status is upgrades to business class from economy, when those seats are available etc. Domestic and economy. I don't see myself paying $5K for a 1st class ticket to Delhi, but if 90% of those seats are going to empty, then I want an upgrade. So I want an airline that allows upgrades + has a decent amount of them available. Getting elite status for priority boarding or a special reservation line doesn't interest me.

Nearly all of my trips originate out of NY. As we used AA alot for the airpass program (which we are cancelling this month), it is a lot of Laguardia. For a CO flight, it would be Newark. Prob 65/35 LGA vs. Newark.

Don't really care about hotel card. I have the Park Hyatt card because I stay in Chicago alot and that's my favorite hotel. Otherwise I try to stay at Four Seasons or best hotel where I can get my corporate discount. (Miami: Delano, Vegas: Four Seasons, etc.)

My main focus here is to organize my travel/spending to take advantage of the loyalty programs. If that means switching from Amex Gold to Delta Reserve or something, I would do that. if it means switching from Amex Gold to Platinum to get upgrades will do that --- corporate wise, the Airpass program we are in is ending -- and I don't want to fly economy from Chi/NYC all the time.. if a Corporate Platinum card gets me upgrades, or Elite status on Delta does, I will do whatever is necessary (my office won't spring for full rack fare 1st class tickets, especially in this environment).

I've been reading the forum and getting overwhelmed. AA problem is I can't just roll over Amex points to them to get elite status overnight. And they have old planes. But appears they have most upgrades. Delta seems to be in the middle. And CO seems to have big fans, but it sounds like its really tough to get any sort of upgrade with them. AA fleet is real old, Delta seems in-the-middle, and CO is the best for now. But 1st class in any of those airlines is fine with me.

Perhaps my hopes for what Elite gets you is too high and I should be looking forward to cramped economy trips for a while!

Unless if i am mistaken, transferring your Amex MR to an airline is not going to get you elite status with any carrier.

When talking about FF programs you have two types of miles. Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) and Redeemable Miles (RDMs). EQMs cannot be used to obtain upgrades or to obtain awards whereas RDMs can. EQMs sole purpose are to measure your goal towards Elite Status. Most airlines use a 25K, 50K, and 100K EQM tier for their different elite levels. To obtain EQMs, you must actually have butt in seat flying miles. The EQMs that one is able to get from a credit card is minimal when taken into consideration what is required for elite status qualification. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all fare classes earn the same amount of EQMs. On some airlines, the deep discounted economy fares only earn 50% EQMs vs 100% that you might earn with a more expensive fare bucket. If I remember correctly, CO EQMs work that way whereas when flying United all economy class tickets (regardless of fare bucket) earn 100% EQMs.


In short, it's highly unlikely that you will be able to obtain top-tier elite status without a lot of BIS (butt in seat) miles.


Halothane

If it were that easy, everyone would be elite! Halothane is right, with few exceptions EQM's come from BIS. There are, however, a few credit card deals that can get you the odd 5K or 10K EQM's if you spend enough in a year. That is a starter toward top tier but you still need 90K or so BIS.

You are correct, however, if you book at co.com you get a 50% bonus on the EQM's, therefore bringing your total EQM's to 100%.

OK this is disheartening! And to think I was deciding between CO/Delta/AA and now nothing. I'm still shocked that CO wouldn't let me pay $1k to sit in a seat when they are all empty.

No way I can get 90K BIS miles in year for now.. going to chicago/back only gets me a few thousand miles.

Looks like I am SOL.

You might look into accumulating American Airlines miles. You can upgrade to business class to India for 40,000 miles each way plus a fee of $300. So with your credit card spend it would be pretty easy to get the 80,000 miles each year for a round-trip upgrade to India (plus the $600).

Incidentally, you mentioned upgrading to First Class on Continental. I believe they only have business class on those flights. it is pretty well impossible to upgrade all the way from economy to real First Class on long-haul international flights.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Best advise is to buy Randy's book and learn about each airline, hotel, and credit card program that works for you and start putting all of your miles to one program if Elite Status is what you are seeking.

Dave

thanks for the advice everyone. sincerely appreciate it. ^^^

AA has a challenge program in which you can become an elite (Platinum) by flying only 10K miles within 90 days. When this status expires, you'll have to re-earn it the old-fashioned way, but while it is in effect you'll earn double miles. So a good way to accumulate a few miles if you time it well. There are a few fine points about the challenge, so if you are interested, you should learn them.

While I like AA's program, if you are more comfortable with any airline in terms of service or schedule, then I'd try to accumulate miles there. Presently only AI and CO offer nonstops from NYC area to DEL. However, a fair number of one-connection options exist.

IMHO when your schedule allows you to get one night's sleep in the connecting city, that is more comfortable (and you arrive more refreshed) than any nonstop in any class. I'd rather fly two 7 hours flights in economy separated by a long sleep in a real bed than one 15 hours flight in J. The emphasis is on sleep rather than tourism, so an inexpensive bed at/near the airport will do.

Good luck.

As others have mentioned, getting all the perks of Elite status generally requires BIS. There are some enhancements that can be obtained with $.

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines allow their members to buy upgrades (both in 500 mile increments, I believe). I have used the Alaska Airlines program before to upgrade at the airport, on the day of the flight, from SEA-SFO and SEA-PVR. Alaska does fly trans-Con (JFK-SEA and then SEA-LAX), although I don't know if it flies JFK-LAX. You don't know until you get to the airport, though, whether or not an upgrade is available. I don't know how easy it is to use AA upgrades, but they're only good for travel in North America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Also, for non-elite AA members, the upgrades are only from Y and B classes.

If you have to fly to India (or Asia) again and you have some flexibility about choice of airline, you could also look into flying an airline that offers Premium Economy, at least to get you across the Pacific, and then connect to a flight to get you to India. For example, Thai Airways would get you to Bangkok and from there I think you can take a direct flight on Cathay (in Economy) to some cities in India. Another airline with PE to Asia is Eva. PE is a fair bit more comfortable than Y. Or you could fly the much longer route and fly PE from the US to the UK and then from the UK to India on British Airways. (PE flights are also tier-point earning flights with BA that will qualify you for membership in Executive Club and get you started on earning status and miles with BA.)

So let me get this straight.......

1-you dont fly CO.

2-you buy an ECONOMY ticket.

3-you want to upgrade the ECONOMY ticket for $1K?





I recently bought a Chevy malibu..and now I am sooooo ticked off that the salesman did not give me a 'VETTE for $1000 extra. You GOT what you PAID for!


Even as an elite, you would NOT have been given a FREE upgrade on this flight!!! BUY what you WANT...dont BUY one ticket, and get mad if you dont get something for FREE! Those 10% of the seats that were taken paid MANY...MANY thousands MORE then you did, NOT just 1 or 2 thousand more!

The upgrade I suggested to OP, breaking a long US-India journey into two and getting one night's sleep in a real bed, costs only $100 or so and, for me at least, works far better than the much more expensive F/J fares would. YMMV.

"OK this is disheartening! And to think I was deciding between CO/Delta/AA and now nothing. I'm still shocked that CO wouldn't let me pay $1k to sit in a seat when they are all empty."

Probably because if they did that, those few people who paid the $5k for their tickets up front would have bought economy tickets and paid the upgrade at the gate. Having these people pay full price is the justification for a first class cabin in the first place. On a domestic flight, you might find people receptive to cash offers, but the international upgrade is a different beast.