I feel that I am far opposite the average FTer in this regard. I pretty much just book the cheapest fare/convenience combination. I really pay almost no attention to what carrier it is.

My reasons:

I probably only fly 15-25K per year so I would doubtfully accumulate status:

All carriers are virtually the same service wise to me.

My miles don't really ever get wasted. It may take a few years possibly to accumulate 25K miles for a free ticket, but it will eventually get used.

With alliances I really only need 4 mileage accounts and I have everybody covered. (AA, UA, NW, WN)

I fly ORD-IAH three or four times per year. I can fly AA, UA, CO, or WN nonstop. It will take as little as five dollars to persuade me to fly your airline. My guess is that I'd probably spend $500 or so trying to fly the same carrier. When combined with the fact that I probably won't fly 25K miles it makes the most sense to me.

I usually pick ones that I have status on or need miles to reach a higher tier. Generally use DL or AA since they get me just about everywhere I want to go.

Since I semi retired, getting and maintaining status is a chore some years but since most of my flying is full fare coach for clients, I reach at least minimums on both AA and DL and the fares between the two are usually close enough.

Cheers

I used to.......I believed that I didn't fly enough to justify one particular airline/alliance either.
I know better now-and enjoy the perks like double miles, lounge access (most of my trips are international) and free upgrades. Depends on your travel pattern but a lot of people don't realize that they WILL benefit by putting all their eggs in one basket even without flying weekly.
Mostly I can find competitive fares and even when slightly higher the cost saving with more award tickets earned alone more than covers the deficit-even without putting value on upgrades and lounge access which probably isn't quantifiable as I wouldn't pay extra for these anyway.

My brother in law used to always buy the cheapest BOS-SFO tickets, and not bother about miles.

I pointed out that after 5 RT's he'd have enough for a free flight, so the actual "cost" of the flights he was paying for ~20% less than the ticket price. So unless the cheapest flight was more than 20% less than the FFP flight, he'd not actually save any money.

Not zero attention, but it is only my third consideration after price and schedule.

But what airlines does not earn any miles between BOS-SFO. I'd just buy whatever was cheapest, rack up miles in various programs and eventually I'll get enough for a free ticket. So I wouldn't see how it was hurting me to fly different carriers. If your flying enough to get status you would lose the bonus miles, but if flying twice per year, then I doubt it.

Your kidding right? If your on FT you are looking for ways to earn miles or you are on the wrong board. IMHO

If one flies on an airline (or an alliance partner) once a year, that person should have an account on either that airline (or one within the same alliance). For the average or casual flyer, this would mean just three accounts. An account on oneWorld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance (alphabetically).

If the flights are on Southwest, JetBlue, or AirTran it's a slightly different matter as all necessary credits for an award flight have to be earned in a limited time.

As an economist and someone who thinks about pricing models more than is healthy, I primarily book on value and convenience. JetBlue no longer serves BNA, I have no inclination to fly AirTran, but consider miles, promotions, and status all part of value.

I used to pay zero attention. I probably saved a total of $100. Now I'm kicking myself, as I would have got early status recognition.

Three possible issues to consider:

1 -- Say you fly one airline/alliance once or twice, but from that point on, their flights are typically more expensive (even if just by a few dollars), so you never fly them again. Those first two flights would be wasted.

2 -- Variation of #1, except you do fly that airline/alliance again, but there is a several year gap between flights. Then you find out that your account was dormant too long, and your previously earned miles expired. If you consolidate, this is much less likely to happen. But you're back to zero....

3 -- Even if you eventually get to your target on all of your carriers, it'll take quite a bit longer than if you consolidated. Why is that an issue? In recent years, airlines have been continually devaluing the miles. Say you start when all the airlines charge 25,000 miles for a domestic RT. Three or four years along, you still haven't gotten to that target on any airline, and suddenly they all start moving to a 35,000 requirement. If you had consolidated, you might have gotten one or two tickets at the lower level. Now, every ticket will cost you 35,000 miles, or more. The clock is always ticking....

And that doesn't even address the possibility that you just might have gotten elite status if you consolidated all of your flights. If you fly up to about 25,000 miles per year as you indicated, you just might achieve status. Miles accrue even quicker when you get a bonus for every mile you fly. And elites often get expanded access to free tickets...like more availability of tickets for fewer miles. All of which gets you more for your flying dollar....

Unless you are a very frequent flyer (who flies enough to gain top tier status on all carriers selected), spreading your flights out will usually hurt you in some way.

point 1 has not happened in 15 years. I have somehow manged along. Especially with the alliances, somebody will eventually have a low fare. My wife has probably accumulated 15K NW miles in 10 years but whe will eventually get to 25K.

Point 2 is somewhat true. But you can extend life by putting a car rental on your account or applying for a credit card, or redeeming a magazine which is good value. It takes some work though.

Point 3 is true, but I'm not sure that I would be spending those miles so fast anyways. Yous till need to find a trip that works.

I'd say my typical travel for a year is 5 purchased domestic RT averaging 1800 miles per RT at $200 a piece. Then also 1 International flight at 9K miles RT and $500. Then I probably use another 50K miles for two more domestic RT.

SO that is 18K purchased miles. My guess is that if I stuck to one airline I would end up spending an extra $500. Even if my 18K miles gets completely wasted they are not worth nearly $500 IMO.

Now if I happened to travel a lot in a certain year maybe I could make 25K miles. But that status would probably result in bonus miles of 6K per calender year. Plus I would probably get a few upgrades in that year. I'd say a typical domestic upgrade is worth only $20 or so to me and the 6K is worth maybe $90. So maybe I get $200 worth of goodies from status.

Basically I can only see myself getting $300 in benefits or so in the absolute best case, and my guess is that I will spend more then that to always fly the same carrier.

Plus there is a big benefit to having miles in various carriers. When I need a FF ticket I now have 4 times as many options to find availability on the route I need. This has come in handy a number of times.

I book my miles in two programs: Alaska and United. Between the two, you have 7 major domestic airlines and a boatload of international carriers. The ones you are missing are the non-alliances of Southwest, Jet Blue, AirTran, Midwest, Frontier, Virgin America and others.

With these two programs, I get enough choices with price and schedule plus keep my miles concentrated in two programs.

I see you mentioned using those miles on a 25K domestic ticket. I used to be a flyer like you until 1991 with no attachment to any airline. I didn't even know about frequent flyer programs and stumbled into a promotion where UA was offering 5,000 miles if you booked a ticket via Prodigy/Easy Sabre. In 1992 I started flying UA, made status for the first time, and have not looked back.

Look beyond the 25K domestic award to bigger things you can do with those miles. In the case of AA, think off peak international awards for 40K to South America or Europe. Think business class 16 segment One World awards that can take you around the world. You need to focus on one carrier for grand things like this. Surely there is somewhere you would like to go that is expensive, thousands of miles away from the U.S., and worthy of the use of a stack of miles? Australia? New Zealand? Asia? South America?

Tom in Bellingham, Washington

I have thought about this stuff.

Most of the value with international awards however comes with premium cabin travel. Yes you can buy a $7000 ticket with only 90K miles. But what matters is what you were willing to pay for that ticket. I would probably not pay more then $300 RT transpacific or $200 RT transatlantic for business class upgrade. Consequently premium awards are of no value to me. Id rather just redeem for two awards.

I have thought about the 40K off peak award to Europe. But when I wanted to go in March 2008, I was able to buy a ticket for $420. In my experience the off peak Europe award rarely yield much over 1 cent per mile. So instead I just save those miles. I usually use AA miles for a domestic RT with a stopover. I generally get three domestic one ways with a 25K award that would have cost me $500.

The one time I went to South America, I used a 35K award on CO.

Last time we went to Japan in May of 2006 we spent under $600 so miles would not have been of much value.

If I was going to Europe in the summer I would try and make a 50K award work as that ticket is likely to be $1000.

My parents go to India a lot but they usually spend about $1200. They could use 80K miles, but that really doesn't make any more sense then using those iles for three domestic tickets which cost $300-400.

So my point is that I generally don't need the miles for international trips. Somehow or the other on just about every international trip I have ever made miles would have yielded less then 1.5 cents per mile.

Also I do somehow end up with fairly large balances of miles anyways. I have a fair amount of CC spending so my AA miles are now about 100K even though probably less then 10K is from flying. I have flown less then 10K on UA, but with the 25K bonus they had for 3 RT and the 21K credit card bonus I have over 60K. My wife has also flown less then 10K on UA, but did fly to New Zealand on NZ and got double miles. So that was 30K, plus 25K bonus for 3Rt plus 21K credit card bonus. So she has 100K for almost never flying UA.

I do recognize that once in a while it is nice to have a large balance so you can redeem for a large award and save significant cash. My argument is that these awards are not that common as I usually find cheap fares and the times I do want the award I have managed because I still manage to get large accounts with credit cards and some super bonus deals.

I am currently down to about 100K on AA and that is pretty much it. I guess that is why I am thinking of going for about 100K through the DL transfer promo or possibly doing a bunch of rental cars through the budget promo.

I think you've figured out the keys: Always fly just under 25K miles per year, and don't bother yourself about the massive devaluations that occur while you wait 10 years to accrue enough miles for a free ticket. Excellent!