CO and *A -- reward
 

Good day all.

I'm debating to switch to CO or stick with AA. (Can anyone help with thoughts on that?)

But the point of this thread (if there is one) is this: my goal is to do mileage runs to get miles for a business or first class ticket for my mother and I to Europe when I graduate college. Let's say I graduate 3 years from now and thus will be getting the reward ticket then.

When considering FFP's and reward redemption, should I be thinking that by the time I redeem my miles I will have the option of using *A carriers?

Why are you even contemplating a switch to CO? Do you parents live near a CO hub?

To answer some of your questions, CO should be in *A long before you graduate, so *A carriers will be available for awards to Europe at that time (unless, CO decides to switch alliance again).

LAX

I'd also consider a credit card. Those come with a lot of bonus miles that can help you get started.

Also to go to Europe as of now it can get hard with AA miles as you have to stick with AA on TATL from the US. The number of TATL flights is also limited to IB and AY. You can redeem on BA only from Canada and Mexico. This might change if/when they survive DOT and EU scrutiny.

Compare this to CO when they join *A you can redeem on AC, LH, SK, UA, US, SQ, OS, LO, TP, LX, TK, and of course CO for TATL.