(There is a typo in the subject, should be "once")

Last year I flew just over 100,000 miles, almost all on Delta, and made Platinum Medallion.

This year, I'm going to pass 100,000 before the end of summer (maybe sooner).

What do you think is the best strategy? Stay with Delta, or try for elite with another airline, too?

(If this subject has been covered before and you know where it is, please forgive me and post the link. I couldn't find one.)

A lot of options make sense for me:

UA -- upside: I used to be elite with them & have a lot of lifetime miles; it dominates my home base of SFO; downside: everyone in SFO is UA Premier, at least.

AA -- upside: SJC hub, partners with Swissair and Finnair (I travel to both Zurich and Helsinki), flights to Tokyo from San Jose, already get MCI miles on them.

CO -- upside: two of my usual destinations are Cleveland and Newark;

Qualiflyer: upside: I average 5 trips to Switzerland a year. downside: doesn't mean much in the U.S., elite is 50,000 miles.

I'm not sure if I should try to comp an elite, since I have no idea how much I'll fly next year (although every year for the last 7, I've flown more).

Any sage advice?

[This message has been edited by opus17 (edited 03-04-2000).]

If I were you, I would split loyalties. I've been (only) GM with DL and my upgrade success rate has been about 95% over the last year on eligible fares. Same 100% bonus as PMs. Only difference in my mind is the free CRC membership.

Perhaps, you should stick with DL for this year, wait for the AA - Qualiflyer partnership to come to full fruition and split loyalties next year??

If you are doing primarily domestic travel, then my view is that you should split loyalties after 50K miles if you know you will be flying another airline at sometime during the year, unless of course you are shooting for lifetime million miler status. The top level of any FF program (UA 1K, US Chairmans, AA Exec Platinum, CO Platinum, etc.) is very overrated in my view. Upgrade success at the 2nd tier is almost the same as at the top level and I believe with the exception of CO, the bonus mile % is the same.

I sorta agree that you should split loyalties. Eggs in one basket and so forth.

But I have a hard time upgrading on UA in IAD on IAD-SFO and IAD-SEA and other domestic nonstop routes, the 1Ks get there first.

I think it depends upon where you are and the airline, as to how hard it is to stand out from the crowd. I had no trouble upgrading on AA when I flew AA but I wasn't flying out of DFW either.

Also, if you do a lot of flying on one airline, don't you have a lot more leverage with that airline, I mean in the 200K mile per year category or whatever? I can't imagine you'd get anyting but good treatment that way.

This has been covered before, but I don't know where to find it. I went for the highest level with UA and BA so I'd be covered with the Star Alliance and Oneworld. It's worked out very well for me.

I too am splitting my miles again this year--going for 1k on UAL and MVP Gold on Alaska. While I tend to fly more status miles on UAL, I actually accumulate a lot more total miles on Alaska, which is good because those miles can get me on to BA, KLM, SAS, TWA, CO, AA, NWA and even the Starlight Express if we need a really cool alternative romantic weekend away.

Last year at the very end, when I had completed my status on UAL and AS, I threw the last 25,000 AS flight miles onto NWA simply for the purpose of getting enough NWA status so that they couldn't cap my NWA credit card miles. I use those NWA miles for emergency trips for my employees, like when I need somebody in DC tomorrow for one day and the ticket costs a fortune.

I think every person must make this choice on their own, depending on how easy it is for them to accumulate miles and points and how they prefer to use them.

Thanks for all the opinions -- confirming my gut instinct to stop when I hit 100,000 on Delta and try to get elite on another airline. In previous years, I had been GM on Delta and (nearly worthless)Premier on United.

Once again, sorry if this was a repeat, it was kind of a difficult subject to search for in the archives.

Agree with stopping with DL after qual to PM. Spread your ridership around because programs and goodies can change at any time.

[This message has been edited by flyguy (edited 03-05-2000).]

Punki, Did we all lose our registration date when the board was remodeled? Not a big deal, but nice to see sometimes. Also I never added elites on all programs and it appears you did not either.