Help with FF program- AA or CO
 

Thanks to all for your comments. This is a wonderful site and have enjoyed it plenty the last week or so since I've joined.

Here's my situation. I live in Austin so have 2 great hubs in DFW and HOU for AA and CO respectively. I mainly fly for vacations with my family to South America, Europe and Mexico- only occasionally elsewhere.

I'm Gold with AA and currently have 670K miles- another 700K from Platinum. I just started to earn with CO as well and have 160K miles.

Should I scrap CO and just concentrate on AA? I want to use my miles for rewards, upgrades and status. I get my miles mainly from partner programs and not flying.

Should I maybe consider another carrier as well. I'm 35 and plan to do plenty of traveling in the future. Any and all comments are appreciated.

Either program is fine, with each having benefits and drawbacks. I'd certainly just focus on one rather than both if you can.

What do you mean by "670K and another 700K from platinum" about your AA balance?

Also, you talk of getting points from partners rather than flying but you also fly enough to make AA Gold. How much do you actually fly in any given year? That will make a difference.

I received Gold by accruing 1M points. That is also what I meant by 700K from platinum- I need 700K points to achieve lifetime platinum.

I rarely fly- 4-5 times a year. Most are domestic w/ Southwest- the others are international to the places I listed.

if aa gets you to the intl places you want, and [if its still available] the 700k mi [not points] to get life plt, then go for aa.....also, before your next intl trip, check out the aa forum stickies for challenges [which require points]....as gld, you get 25% bonus mi, w plt 100% getting there faster....

i don't know co....good luck...

you should also consider churning a couple citibank AA cards, at 30k a pop it will give you a nice jump on the 700k left.

i'd stick to AA, i'd use them for your short hops instead of wn, then use the miles you earn on a C or F ticket internationally when you want to go. i used to split my trips wn/aa, then realized it was silly and could get so much better overall value out of aa if i stuck to it 100% so i did that and got EXP for 4 years. then i increased my travel and got 1k and exp. haven't flown on a wn plane in years, and don't miss it at all.