a good frequent flyer program?
 

hi,
i was hoping that someone could give me some advice on choosing a good frequent flyer program. i fly out of st. louis, usually traveling to los angeles or san francisco, about 6 round-trips a year.

i know there are some programs that also give miles when you use your credit cards, and this might be good for me too.

i'm more interested in getting free domestic tickets than i am interested in getting upgrades.

does anyone have any advice for a novice frequent flyer? thanks!

Yup: READ! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
There is a wealth of information here on exactly your question. I'm not as knowledgable as some so I'm not including links, but if you do a search you can find almost anything you look for.
For the kind of travel you are doing, if all you care about is free tickets, you might want Southwest (based on your travel mentioned above, it would give you a free ticket the most often, but of course there are drawbacks). If you want to get into the upgrade game and all the promotions then it may work out differently for you (Northwest and United have the best card offers right now, but that changes almost daily).

Hope this gives you at least a start. Search for anything I mentioned above and you will find a ton of relevant information.

Good luck and welcome!

If you're flying out of STL, WN (Southwest) can take you to LAX and the Bay Area (using OAK instead of SFO). And for every four roundtrips you purchase online, you will get a free domestic roundtrip anywhere WN flies.

Another good option would be AA because they have a hub at STL offering more nonstop and direct flights than most other carriers.

Of course, you could chose a different carrier like UA (and connect through ORD or DEN) if that works better.

The above advice is sound: do your homework. There's plenty of information on this website to last you a lifetime. And welcome to FlyerTalk, shanpet.

The AAdvantage program by American Airlines.

Right now, they are offering 10,000 bonus miles for applying for a Citi Bank AAdvantage MasterCard, free for the first six months. Great deal.

I don't think you can do any better than American Airlines, especially since you are in St. Louis.

Other good features about this program:

-- Offers more ways than any other program to earn miles on the ground in case you don't fly much.

-- Offers greater availability of award tickets than any other major frequent flyer program (except Southwest).

-- Unlike other programs, AAdvantage allows much more flexibility in itineraries on award tickets (stop-overs, open-jaw travel)

If you fly domestically and look for best fares, Southwest is the way to go as mentioned. American is a good second choice because of the hub they have there, but if you do any international flying, American is going to take you a lot farther than Southwest can.

And if interested with credit cards, Southwest gives you 1 credit per $1200 spent, so you could earn 16 credits after spending only $19,200 vs. $25,000 compared to the others. You also get 4 credits for signing up to the Southwest card, so you would only need 12 more credits. Again though, Southwest would be ideal for the domestic flyer who likes best prices and doesn't care about upgrades.

[This message has been edited by cab747 (edited 07-17-2003).]

I am in Springfield, Mo and also trying to decide on a FF card. I also am not as interested in upgrades. I do want a card that will let me pay bills, buy groc, gas and other things to get miles. Every time I have ever needed to fly, the best fares are out of St Louis! So I will fly out of there! I want to be able to accrue enough miles to fly from here! Does the AAdvantage card let you accrue miles like I have described? Thanks,
gogoflyer

Yes, the AAdvantage card will let you earn miles on ANY purchases you make. Most airline cards reward you with double miles when you purchase tickets from the airline which the credit card is affiliated with. Ex: Buy $500 worth of tickets on American Airlines with your American Airlines credit card, get 1,000 miles.

Different credit card companies sometimes run promotions in regard to balance transfers earning miles, but you will have to check with the credit card company if such an offer exists.

shanpet and gogoflyer: you may want to rethink your decision to tie your airline loyalty to AA in light of the carrier's decision to downsize its STL hub, apparently your airport of choice. Just some food for thought.

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 07-17-2003).]

I just read all that link and it was very confusing to a novice like me with all those initials! Guess I will have to hang around awhile longer :-). Is there a place here that lists what all those initials stand for? I figure that most are airports. Also I should look for another card? Thanks for the "heads up"!
gogoflyer

Here's a good source for decoding airport codes. Some of them are intuitive -- HOU, for example, for Houston Hobby -- some of them are less so -- OGG, for example, for Maui Kahului.


[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 07-17-2003).]

Thanks loads, this is going to be a big help!
gogoflyer

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[This message has been edited by scruffy (edited 07-27-2003).]

Scruffy,
Okay now, That was a nice link! I have bookmarked it...thanks! Thanks also for the Southwest tip. I will check it out! But Southwest does not fly into Springfield, that I see, nor does it fly into Richmond, Va (a place I will want to go to or fly grandkids from) So, shouldn't I stick to an airline that goes to airports that I will be going to? I am a want-a-be-flyer (now that my family is split up). In the past year someone in the family has had to some here or us there. Everytime we check rates we do so on line with comparison sites and everytime the flights leaving from Springfield or coming in here has been a lot higher than using St. Louis! Maybe I just don't know how to find the good rates!
gogoflyer

There's always the FT glossary:
http://www.flyertalk.com/glossary/

Thanks landspeed, that is going to be a BIG help!
gogoflyer