Young, poor int'l jetsetter getting into the game
 

Hey folks,

Just found these boards and what a delight - great community here. Here's the score: I'm in my mid-20's, started my own business three years ago, and I can basically break even by getting a little bit of international consulting work a number of times a year. I'm an American, live in the USA, but can make just about enough coin to cover my trips by working half the time and getting more cultured the other half the time. I also make quite a few domestic flights.

So what frequent flyer program might be best? I move around, having lived in California, Massachusetts, and New York in the last year, I typically fly the cheapest fares possible, and hadn't joined any FF programs before. Now I'm getting into it - heading to London in two weeks, and wondering what the best long term strategy for flying is? These mileage runs seem really intriguing, and some of the clever stuff y'all are doing is so very impressive and cool (though the acronyms are daunting! - ever consider a "Start Here Newbies" Forum?).

So, very grateful for any and all advice. To recap:

*American, living on West Coast or East Coast most of the time
*Approx 10 round trip USA round trip flights a year, to basically everywhere
*Approx 5 round trip international flights per year, to Europe and Asia
*All flights on cheapest fares I could find at kayak.com, orbitz, etc.

No real airline preference, and I don't need so much comfort - my goals are largely free tickets, lounge access, and the occasional free upgrade from economy.

Thanks a million for any pointers,

Sarbanes

Also, I've scanned almost the major areas of these boards, and spent 10-20 hours researching through Google, travel experts, etc. I "get" the basic criteria and picking goals, that said, it's hard to make heads or tails of a lot of it... some people sell books on this stuff, but it seems mostly related to getting cheaper biz travel.

Finally - just applied for and got an Amex Gold Card. Wasn't thinking strategically or maybe Starwood would have been the way to go, but after I'm an AMEX member for a while with a good record I'll see if they'll give me some bonuses for taking a Starwood or Platinum. So Amex Gold partners might be a consideration - that'll be my primary card going forwards. Thanks again.


-S

As a general rule, choose one airline in each major alliance. Then choose one alliance as your primary and accumulate miles there (flying but also credit cards and other ways), but when you simply have to fly another alliance you'd be set up to earn miles there too.

I like AA's AAdvantage program for earning miles and, when possible, using those miles on their partner airlines like CX and JL.

However, this is a complicated game. If I have to pay to fly the partners, I need to choose carefully, because some provide 100% miles, others only 25%.

This is tailored to my taste and circumstances. Your choice would depend greatly on which airports are near you, and where you usually go or want to go. Often those things trump many theoretical program details.

Good luck and welcome to FT!

One issue with AA's AAdvantage program is that BA's transatlantic flights do not earn any qualifying miles in spite of AA and BA being in the same alliance (OW). And BA's program is probably even stingier.

If lounge access is a big factor, you probably want either *A or OW, as ST provides lounge access only for the top tier, and then only for international flights; *A and OW give access at the middle tier. Within *A, UA and US also limit each other's members' access on domestic flights, but non-UA/US *Gold members do have access.

Given that, one suggestion to consider would be AC, even if you primarily fly other *A members. AC's mid-tier starts at just 35K, and gets you full *A lounge access. For the TATL/TPAC upgrades, though, you might need to route through YYZ, YUL or YVR.

Sarbanes, you did not mention if your trips are paid for by you or your client. It makes a difference if you can fly on someone else's dime and acquire the miles for yourself.

Agree that Amex Starwood is one of the best. But you might want to also consider Diners for the international airport lounges.

One thing for sure: Be prepared to be lavished with stories from old-timers about how you got into the game 15-20 years too late and benefits today are NOTHING like they used to be. ;) :p

(OTOH, they're still slipping, so maybe in 10 years when a US48 RT saver award is 60K + $150 you'll be able to tell similar stories yourself).

Would also second what was said about not assuming anything on mileage credit when dealing with partner airlines. Rules are convoluted to the point of being ridiculous, with lots of 50%, 25% or 0% gotchas varying by class booked. I got the $257 all-in ATL-SCL deal on DL "partner" AV, for example, but the fare class earned zero miles on AV-operated flights. So I just had the DL-operated ones credited to NW. Was also on the AF trip EWR-FCO; the EWR-CDG and v.v. got full credit on NW, but the CDG-FCO got only 25%. Examples like that abound.

If you're checking out programs in the Star Alliance, you might want to read BlondeBomber's comparison chart:
Comparison Chart

AC does offer *G status at 35K, but just be aware that you don't get upgrades except on AC metal, since it doesn't participate in the *A partner upgrades program. The Maple Leaf Lounges (MLLs) are quite good though - if you fly through YYZ often - by North American standards.

Always the cheapest fare means that you're limiting what you can do. It seems that every other poster has more or less forgotten this. Splitting up your travel means that you won't get status on anything.

Basically join the program for every airline you fly. Also, it doesn't sound like a credit rating means much to you so you can get every credit card that comes with a bonus and cancel them. That's about the best as you're going to do. People on here spend more than the absolute minimum and consolidate their travel to get rewards. Airlines aren't that interested in rewarding people who only show loyalty to price.

The big unadvertised "gotcha" of some frequent flyer programs is exorbitant "fuel surcharges" which completely negate the value of economy class award tickets on many routes (business/first class is a different matter).

My key advice would be to steer clear of programs that nickel-and-dime you at every opportunity.

Domestically, Delta leads the pack in novel (and dishonest, in my opinion) ways to charge for an ostensibly free ticket. Southwest, at the other extreme, doesn't even charge for things that you might expect an airline reasonably to charge for.

Internationally, the picture is a bit more complicated. In general, though, it's probably worth it to spend a bit more to fly with a customer-friendly airline -- all frequent flyer miles are not created equal.

I disagree. OP should probably (like an earlier poster recommended) join at most ONE airline in each alliance. Even if OP purchases the cheapest flights every time, they can still build up some miles with a few well-selected FFPs.

Since you are young, I would suggest that you check out which airlines have lifetime elite. It is hard to say which airlines will survive 20 years int othe future. But I did earn lifetime platinum on Continental 14 years ago and it was one of the best things I did. CO just introduced a new lifetime elite. Others have variations you might want to look into.

I think your choice of the Amex Gold card is a mistake for actually using it for purchases, though I assume you got a nice bonus for first use and got it without annual fee for a year. For actual use, the Starwood Amex card gives 25,000 miles/$20,000 spent on most airlines except United and Continental.

Once you have decided on you airline program(s), look at my website below for free mega bonuses. The best are on the Credit Card and Finance pages. You can get huge bonuses from American Airlines, for example, by getting its personal and business Mastercard, its personal Visa card, and its Amex card. That's an easy free trip to Europe - well, free except for the fees added for the ticket.

Sarbanes, I'm going to second the suggestion of Air Canada Aeroplan made earlier.

Your approximate travel seems to work out at about 90k miles per year. (Note that I am basing this on 3 returns per year from the mid-west as a mid point to London (Europe) and 1 each to Tokyo and Singapore as well as 7 return transcons per year accounting for the fact that you won't be doing transcons every time). You may in fact be travelling a bit more or less than this but you will still be travelling at least 35k BIS miles per year.

Based on this you will easily make the requirements for AC Elite and if you are willing to play around with routings and possibly pay a little bit more for your trips you may even be able to get up to 100k miles and AC Top Tier Super Elite.

As an AC Elite you will be able to access business class lounges when flying on *A carriers (Note: this is not available to you in the domestic USA if you have status with UA or US). You will also be able to select upgrade certificates for use on AC flights. In these cases you would have to fly to your destination via either YYZ, YUL or YVR as indicated above.

It is worth noting that earning with AC may not in fact cost all that much more than simply choosing the cheapest each time. Admitedly you may pay more for your domestic flights as you won't be able to fly Southwest and collect rather you will have to fly UA or US if you want to earn. This is partially offset however by the fact that AC often has cheap fares from the USA to Europe and Asia via Canada which make it worthwhile to fly AC on these routes.

Overall, even if you choose to fly other airlines some of the time, your travel patterns indicate that you can easily make AC Elite, gaining the benefits of *G based on your travel pattern. Further, I can see that you will benefit from the lounge access as well as upgrades using certificates on AC which will come in handy on flights such as USA-YVR-ASIA. I hope all this helps.

It's the same with AA - they don't give you domestic lounge access, you have to have mid-tier status on other OW carriers. However there are often restrictions on maintaining status on non-US airline programs when you live in the US, for instance that you have to fly X number of flights segments on the actual airline.

Also worth considering the effort you want to put into chasing alliance partner airlines to credit miles. From my experience, OW works most as an "alliance". Skyteam will grudgingly credit partner miles if you chase. Star Alliance seems like an alliance only in the minds of its marketing agency when trying to credit flights on partners, and you end up giving up. Of course, others may have experienced differently.

The financial solvency of the airline you choose to focus on is also important. My first few years out of university I travelled a lot through my job on Ansett (*A), only to lose top status and hundreds of thousands of points when it went went bust in 2001.