I have booked numerous AA awards online. It's easy. But now I have miles and points from all over and not sure what to do!

My route needs 35K miles. North America to Central America. I do this route numerous times a year.

I have:
30K plus some on AA (which can actually get an award most of the year on it's on) so don't really need help there... I don't think? Unless it will fit in with something below?

So, Here is where I get confused:

10K plus some on US Airways - doesn't go where I travel !!!!
15K plus some on Delta
25K plus some on Continental
35K plus some on Amex MR points

How do I make the most of what I have? I am most unsure of what to do with the US Airways miles. I am not sure how to book an award on star alliance, perhaps someone can explain that

Sorry my iPad cut me off.

Using what I have right now, what is the best course of action?

If you travel EXCLUSIVELY within US and Canada - stop at what you have with 25k CO. 25k is enough for a domestic roundtrip coach ticket.

Both US and CO are Star Alliance members, so you can earn US miles when flying CO and vice versa. US doesn't go to where you travel but its partners UA and US probably do. Internationally Star Alliance is the biggest alliance and US offers good mileage redemption rates and availability for international first and business class tickets on the member partners like Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Swiss Air...etc. Within North America you can search Star Alliance award availability (CO, UA and US flights) on Continental.com.

My suggestions:

1. Try to consolidate your flights with a single airline and alliance if price and schedule allow. You earn elite status faster and therefore save quite a bit on baggage/change fees.

Stick to either AA (oneworld), Star Alliance (CO, UA, US) or Delta (Skyteam). Personally I put Delta and Skyteam last for travel both domestic and internationally, but if you live in Atlanta, oh well...

2. Choose either CO or US as the primary program for your Star Alliance flights. Personally I would choose US for now for its generous promotions, and over the uncertainty of CO's Onepass program, which is to be integrated with United's Mileage Plus. Remember you don't have to fly US to earn US miles.

3. Use the miles for international business/first class tickets on quality airlines (Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand to name a few) if you can. US Dividend Miles is a great program for that. Now until Nov 15 you can buy miles for less than 2 cents/mile. US often runs 100% bonus Buy/Transfer miles and other promos, you can rack up the miles quickly at fairly low cost and plenty of airline partners to use your miles on.

4. Transfer your AMEX to AA or US (I am not sure which airline partners AMEX has) to consolidate your balance. Note sometimes Amex runs transfer promo where you get 10-20% or whatever extra miles.

5. If you don't have to fly Delta, don't . Delta Skymiles is an inferior program compared to AA AAdvantage and any of the USA-based Star programs. Try to use your credit card miles or online shopping or whatever to reach 25k (or more realistically, 32.5k for a domestic ticket) and be done with it.

Hope my ideas help.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply and advice!


I should have been more specific about what I am looking for

Right at this moment not interested in Elite Status, more interested in what to do with this miles from all over collected from CC sign up bonuses.

My main flights are RDU-MGA and I do this trip numerous times a year.

This is the ONLY thing I use my miles for.....

It is 35,000 miles in Economy and this is where I am trying to get the most bang for my current miles

I normally get offered an upgrade at the kiosk for $100 on the international portion so don't waste my miles on it.

Mostly I can't quite figure out what to do with the US Airways miles. They don't go to MGA.

I don't understand how to do star alliance bookings either. Can I mix and match programs? (does that make sense?)

You can't mix and match programs. You can mix and match airlines within the same alliance (e.g. CO, UA, US) when you buy the tickets, and pool the miles from the flights into a single program.

US doesn't fly to MGA but CO does (I think). Say it costs 35k US Dividend Miles for USA-Central America in Y. You call US Dividend Miles and say you want a award ticket RDU-MGA, and they will route you on Continental (via Houston, TX most likely, or EWR), or a mix of US/UA/CO domestically and CO between USA and Nicaragua.

You now have 10K US miles, you can either accumlate 25K more by flying/shopping/credit card application bonus, or buy 25K more US miles to reach 35K, or transfer AMEX points to US or CO (if they are partners of Amex) so you instantly have enough miles for a 35k ticket!

You can book CO/UA/US award tickets on CO's website - pretty convenient and it can be booked under anyone's name - good for family/friends, etc

Choose either US or CO as your primary Star Alliance program (personally I suggest US for now). AA is a solid complementary option.

Thanks. I want to make sure I have this straight.

I NEED 35K miles for my flight.

I HAVE:

25K on Continental (which flies to MGA)
&
10K on US Airways

so.... I can call either airline and book the flight on Continental using the combined miles?

No. The miles have to come from one program. But the award you redeem may be across 2 or more carriers.

Oh, ok. so basically the 10K us airways miles are useless to me unless I can add to them which I probably won't do as they don't fly where I want to go and their CC doesn't really give me as much bang for the buck as the Amex.

So, I should just concentrate on transferring my Amex points to continental and delta. I already have enough for 2 tickets there...

Thanks, for taking the time to answer. I understand my options much better now!!