After reading numerous posts in the flyertalk forum for the past two weeks, I am still totally lost.

I would greatly appreciate any help in choosing a ff program to stick with!

In the past several years, I have not done much travel at all, but a recent career change requires me to start flying a lot more frequently. I will be paying for all tickets at my own expense, so would like to find a good value for the $$ vs comfort level along with good rewards benefits.

I am based in Los Angeles, and mostly will travel to Beijing, Taipei, and US domestic travel. In 2008, I plan to take the following:

2 roundtrips of LAX and PEK.
2 trips of LAX to PEK to TPE then to LAX (this can go in reverse order as well)
1 roundtrip of LAX to FLR
2 roundtrips of LAX to SFO
2 roundtrips of LAX to Chicago
1 roundtrip of LAX to New York

The travel might increase as situation changes.

I currently have very low miles on a couple of FF program:
AA 20,000 miles (most from credit card purchase, but no longer have the credit card)
UA 2,000 miles (no credit card at the moment)
JAL 6,000 miles
EVA 6,000 miles
Air China 20,000 km
Hilton Hhoner 190,000 points


Thanks in advance for any help and suggestion!!!

Do you fly Coach, Business, or First?

It will be about half coach, half Business for international flights, and all coach for domestic.

I would likely stick with UA Mileage Plus given the mix of domestic and international and not much paid business class, but AC Aeroplan might offer some options that intrigue you if you fly 100,000 miles plus a year.

UA has most extensive choice of upgrades (points and certificates) but AC likely could accommodate some of your international (likely none domestic though) needs at almost any fare through use of Special System Wide Upgrades (but you don't get many of these in a year and expiry dates are still a challenge -- ones issued in December expire two months later in February (not electronic yet). AC program could get you into UA RCC lounges on domestic flights while you would have to pay with UA's program for domestic flights. Even if you don't fly 100k miles per year, AC will get you this for only 35000 status miles.

For those who fly 100k status miles, AC Aeroplan offers instant kk which means you can get reward seats on AC metal even when reward seats are unavailable for basic points (ie doesn't cost any more than regular awards) provided flight is not oversold.

Other things to consider though--can you get a mileage earning credit card for Air Canada Aeroplan? Definitely get a UA earning one if you go with UA.

If you flew a lot of first or business class, LH and BD are schemes to look at.

See comparison chart below: