I assume your travels will have you involved in a Hotel Loyalty Program as well? If so, have you selected a program? I would recommend, as a way to maximize mileage earning from hotel stays, you go with HHonors and double-dip into a BMI FF account. This will get you 1000 miles PER NIGHT on top of HHonors points. Most other airlines only give 500 miles PER STAY, or 1mile/$ and most other hotel programs only give miles OR hotel points. With 50 nights per year, that's 50k miles redeamable within Star Alliance without ever stepping on a plane.

I would use this pot of miles in addition to another alliance that you actually fly on. Delta within SkyTeam would likely serve you well. Their award redemption fees are escalating but I've never had problems getting a saver with at least a month's notice and some date and/or weekend flexibility. Elites get up to 3 checked bags for free, and weight restrictions are extended as well. SFO-JFK is direct, SFO-FLL and SFO-MIA are connections through ATL or SLC... if you're renting a car, they're close enough that you could chose either-or depending on fare prices. SFO-LAX connects through SLC and becomes a long trip (4.5 hours with a 45 min layover) but I would expected to see that route return when the DL/NW merger somewhat redistributes connection carriers and/or creates a small surplus of mainline aircraft. One of SkyTeam's biggest boons is their coverage of Europe. You'll likely be connecting in ATL and/or JFK alot, and then some in CDG as well, and possibly some in CDG depending on your final destination. SkyTeam's coverage of China is growing as well and, depending on final destination, should not be problematic.

CO just pulled out of the ATH route but otherwise they would've been a viable option for ATH/OSL/CDG/AMS, all from EWR, and AMS/CDG from IAH.

Take a good look at Southwest. Their current program has 24-month rolling expiration, credits per segment so that short hops are amply rewarded, and of course no luggage fees. 32 flights in a year get you automatic check-in (with early boarding) and priority lines to security checkpoints. International partnerships are in the works, starting with WestJet (the Canadian version of Southwest) in 2009.

An overhauled program that Southwest calls Rapid Rewards 2.0 is due out about year from now, well within the current 24-month expiration window. I'm expecting the new program to be points-based, possibly with a more favorable expiration policy. When they change your credits into points, any expiration clock will likely be reset to zero.

The bad news is that points earned in RR 2.0 will be based mostly on ticket price, meaning that short flights won't be as favored as they are now. However this will still be far, far better than a mileage program without the 500-mile minimum. (A 300-mile flight typically costs about 1/3 of the price of a transcon.) Redemption will cost more, at least for today's short-haul customers, but it will be based on cash ticket price. This will eliminate the problem of capacity controls, because redemption prices will reduce members' redemptions of awards for peak travel times. It's all rather clever.

Watch the Southwest forum for a possible signup bonus (could be up to 8 free credits, based on history) tied to Southwest's March entry into MSP. And there are several offers that give you 16 credits for first use of a new Southwest credit card, so don't settle for the 8 credits + 8 for balance transfer.

Thank you so much for all your help and advise. As far as Hotel Loyalty Program goes, I am with Radisson but was thinking of having two different chains with lcoations worlwide..

Best Western is said to have 4000 locations in 80 countries but have no idea how their business hotels are like.

Then we have names like Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton. Not sure if I want to support Paris Hilton enough to have her face on the tv screen. But they seem to have nice hotels..

Best Western and Radisson or Radisson and Marriott? Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

Hilton Hotels Corp. was bought-out by The Blackstone Group in July 2007... no need to worry about financing Paris.

Well, same kinds of questions as we asked you of airlines: What do you want most out of a hotel program, are you on your own budget or is it expense accounted, etc?

If it's fast earning at low cost of oodles of points that you can redeem at good value, then nothing beats Choice and Priority Club, especially if you're paying for the hotels on your own dime (well, at least where I often stay in Orange County CA, Priority Club has many hotels well under $100 many nights on nights when Hilton has maybe at most one, Marriott has none, and Hyatt often has none less than $150++). You also need to be able to book online (thus not through a company travel agent!) to get some of the best repeatable promos. And it helps a ton if you can "hotel hop" (change hotels nightly).

But if it's upgrades, then the answer is opposite. Upgrades are extremely rare at Best Western and Choice, and hit or miss at many Priority Club proerties. But of course, even with the families that are good for upgrades, it depends on the specific brand: For example, HHonors may decent about upgrades, but if you typically stay at HGIs or non-Suite Hamptons, there's nothing much to be upgraded to (all the rooms are so similar).

Btw, no one has any idea of what BW's business hotels are like. BW's motto is that every hotel is "independently owned and operated", which means on the one hand they're not as cookie cutter as other chains, but on the other hand means there's less consistency than at other chains. So you can't learn much about BW business hotels as a category, you have to evaluate each one (for which there's www.tripadvisor.com).

Greyhound???

Fly more & get a better seat

In my experience, BW hotels in Europe are much higher standard than in the States. OTOH, BW being a much more loosely run consortium, inconsistency is likely.

If you want consistency, I would choose Hilton, Starwood or Marriott. Raddison and BW are far down my list for many reasons.

Cheers

If one takes a good look at Southwest, they will see that the OPs travel pattern doesn't fit w/their flights at all.

AA still has 500 minimums, the miles do expire after 18 months of NO activity whatsoever (not just flight activity) and there is no fee for checked bags when traveling internationally nor do elites have to pay the fee.

Most importantly though, AA flies these routes nonstop (except FLL-SFO)