I was planning on putting together my first mileage run. I would like to start out fresh and given my city of Cleveland we have CO as the major AirL as well as a few others(Delta, Southwest, AA, the usual suspects).

Taking that into account, which airline would be the best to start out earning miles where I could maximize my earnings quickly while benifiting from the airL best upgrades down the road. I ask because I usually just book and go, not worrying about miles, ect. But I am going to be traveling a ton more for business, and would like to get a good start on doing it the right way.

Hi steveme,

Welcome to the wonderful world of mileage running .

Before you actually start taking mileage runs, you've got quite a few other questions that you seem to need to be answered. Living in CLE, CO is the biggest carrier & given the fact that you plan on doing a lot of work travel, I imagine that CO will be your company's carrier of choice. Being from CLE, you'll have a LOT of other OnePass elite members to be "fighting" against to get upgraded. You'll also have a 50% EQM earning on lower fares (unless purchased at CO.com - what's your company's travel policy). Given this, CO may not be the best choice for you. From what I understand, CO has a history of having ridiculously high prices from their hub cities & discounts from hub cities are usually less.

I live near IAD - one of UA's hubs. I'm a NW flyer & I get upgraded about 90% of the time because their aren't as many NW elites in DC. If UA offered free upgrades, I'd rarely get them if I was a UA flyer because of all the UA super-elites in the area.

I think you may be able to get a little bit better input on which program you'd like to join from the TravelBuzz forum as they would be able to better advise you on a frequent flyer strategy for your area. Once you've determined which program you'd like to go with, feel free to come back to the Mileage Run forum to help understand how to do the actual mileage runs. You may also want to change your title (or request a moderator to change your title) so that it better reflects the questions you are asking - which FF program is best for your situation?

bhatnasx
Moderator, Mileage Run

Ok thanks for the advice. I am trying to read as much as I can on the subject. I was thinking the same thing about CO as it is always booked and the prices are not the greatest out of Cleveland. I know its one of their bigger hubs. I will look through the travel buzz forum.

Ya might get pigeonholed into CO because of its dominance; lotsa business travelers in hub cities are shackled to their hub carrier. CO's 50% bit and the proliferation of RJs (especially in CLE) have really downgraded them, IMO (had been gold elite on them longer than on any other airline before the bad changes came in).

NW has more jets and is good about upgrades for elites and has a better tie-in with DL, giving you more possibilities without the 50% lop-off. You get the CLE-DTW segment to start most trips, which may/may not be good, depending on the circumstances.

Could be you can make like a hero to the travel manager and volunteer to fly out of CAK if fares there are lower, provided you get to pick the airline.

Tried UA at gold for a year but didn't like their website booking, reduced schedules to ATL, RJs on the IAD route, upgrade policy and, most unexpectedly, the unusually stingy sale-fare availability (way too many T-zeroes!) YMMV. Were it not for the sale fare issue I might've stayed on simply for the Star Alliance, which I really like.