mary_228

Having abandoned ORD for the sunny climate of Sarasota, I will be travelling to Europe and NYC, PDX and STL for leisure trips to see family and vacation. Over a long lifetime of living in Chicago, I have built up status and miles on AA and UA. Going forward, is there another program I should join given the logistics of travel from SRQ? I am not familiar with the merits of Delta or Southwest plans.

FYI, I do not wish to drive to RSW, TPA or MCO, so will have to connect in DFW, ATL, CLT etc. A connection on AA is ticketed like two award segments which is really a bummer. Perhaps other plans are more user friendly for those utilizing regional airports. At least one can hope!

pbiflyer

Delta is strong in Florida. But since you are traveling internationally, I would look at your travel plans, as many international carriers fly into Orlando. They often have more award availability than the domestic guys.
Delta has much more difficult rules for upgrading internationally than AA or UA, but seemingly easier domestic, so that can be a deciding factor if upgrades are a concern.

Blumie

This is not true.

Mwenenzi

What are your objectives from a ffp?
Why not stay with AA - UA, as they have good international routes/partners
FT thread-->Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraso...tional_Airport
A map from Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
At times it may be worth driving to a bigger airport for long haul flights, even if not preferred

The grass in not always greener on the other side

BamaVol

So true. We found ourselves flying Lufthansa using UA miles out of MCO a couple times due to availability and convenience. From FRA, the world is your oyster.

mary_228

When travelling, upgrading or premium class cabins are not a priority. Award availability is more important. Thank you for the links you provided.

I guess I worded this incorrectly. The miles required on AA seem to be calculated on each segment, not like the good old days, when a domestic round trip was 25K, even if a stop was required on the routing. I am seeing one way (with two segments) for that many miles. Example below:

Bradenton/Sarasota, FL to Portland, OR

[size=13px]Wed, Jun 30[/size]

33K

Thu, Jul 1
32.5K

Fri, Jul 2
25K

Sat, Jul 3
20K

Sun, Jul 4
20K

Blumie

Still not true. But like many airlines, AA now uses dynamic pricing for award tickets, as they do for revenue tickets. And if you need to make a connection, the loads on each flight will impact the pricing. Right now, load factors on domestic flights are surprisingly high, so that will impact the miles required for award travel. And I don't think this is unique to AA. Still, there are lots of low mileage award flights out there, even if connections are required.

I haven't approached this in any kind of scientific way, but anecdotally I believe that AA's FFP is much more generous for award travel than is DLs. As a top-tier AA flyer, I also am very happy with my ability to upgrade on flights. That having been said, pre-the AA/US merger, AA had a very poor presence out of SRQ, so it wouldn't have made sense to be AA focused out of there. Not sure what the situation is like now.

Beckles

Without delving into the pros and cons of the FF programs, you should be considering Southwest at least on the routes they fly non-stop (STL and soon LGA), their program is pretty simple since points for redemption tie straight to cash price.