theTheme

Just got a new job that will involve lots of traveling (planes, hotels and rental cars). Here's is the setup I've come up with to maximize UA points. Please let me know if you see anything that I could do differently or more effectively.

UA rewards number (of course)

Hotels, both HHonors and Marriott hotel programs set to give the most number of UA points.

Rental cars with National (1k bonus miles when booking through UA website and 1/$ on rental price)

Credit card (here's where I'm a little shaky). I'm using the AMEX preferred blue sky, mostly for double points on hotels, dining and rental cars. By my math I come out ahead $/point wise although I'd be glad to hear what you all think (the AMEX redemption is 7500 points/$100 credit on any travel).

What more can I do? I will mostly likely qualify for elite on EQS since all my flights will be domestic and not particularly long. I will fly every week with a 3-4 night stay originating out of SYR.

One question that is probably a dumb one, does EQS give you a segment for each flight you take (eg if I fly from SYR to DEN with 2 changes, do I get 3 segments out of it)?

WineCountryUA

On UA/CO you get 1 EQS for each take-off/landing pair (segment).

So SYR-XXX-YYY-DEN would be 3 EQS in discount fares. Y/B and higher fares earn 1.5 EQS per segment.

Some might ask why you are crediting everything to UA. UA is a black hole program and there is no transfer out of miles/points. UA miles used for hotels/rentals is usually considered a poor use of miles.

EricH

To add to the above, you should consider concentrating on one or more hotel programs in addition to UA. If you're really traveling a lot, then you'll get high status that will give you upgrades and other goodies like lounge access and I find that hotel program rewards are more valuable than airline awards.

cordelli

Welcome to Flyertalk.

If you are doing Hilton and you do not currently have status with them, make sure to sign up and book through the MVP program, there are times you can save a ton of money that way, and you will be gold if you complete four stays in 90 days

https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/landin...spx?sid=QBHhbJ

You could also consider hopping hotels every night to get even more bonus points.

Sign up for the dining program, when you are out if you can pick a restaurant that participates you can get a few extra miles that way.

While it will probably also be posted here, keep checking the my promotions page on the Mileage Plus website to see if there are any promotions for you.

Once you obtain status, make sure to match it to Continental, as for sure some of your flights will be on Continental.

mahasamatman

In general, I've found hotel programs are better for accumulating hotel points than for airline miles. (Though some will argue that SPG's 25% bonus makes it worthwhile.)

npei

You should sign up for UA Visa card (Chase offers free 1st year annual fee, along with bonus 30k+ miles after first charge) and use to purchase UA tickets and get additional UA bonus miles, and bonus EQM (when booked via ual).

Your hotel stays should credit to hotel program (not UA miles) so you can gain top tier hotel status for future free stays/ upgrades, since UA miles conversion to hotel nights is terrible exchange rate.

Sign up for one or more hotel affinity credit card (e.g. Hilton Amex to pay for Hilton stays) so you can get extra bonus points when you use it to charge for hotel stay.

adambadam

The credit card seems like a good deal though I feel like you are missing out on getting lots of bonuses from all the air travel $$$ you book. I would look at the UA MP Visa which would get you 3x RDM (and possibly EQM though you aren't going for that it sounds like). Another option would be looking at something like the AMEX Gold Premier Rewards which has 3x MR points on airfare. I am sure there are other similar cards that also give you good bonus points when it comes to airfares as well.

hungarianhc

So would I be wrong in saying....

Travel sounds like it .

I had one of those too.

That sounds reasonable. One thing to keep in mind.. it's likely that your company will have certain rates at different places so while you're planning on HH / Marriott, they might just have a special rate somewhere else.

I'm not familiar w/ the credit card you mentioned, but my advice would be not to jump on getting a new one before you get a feel for your new job and travel patterns. You may find that there are certain things you like / hate, etc.

I think it is smart that you have come up w/ a system, but my one piece of advice would also be to stay flexible. Every frequent flier develops their own preferences so figure out what you like and go for it!

theTheme

Wow, thank you everyone for the great advice.

I will be working for a smaller company and will be responsible for booking all my own travel so I have some flexibility. It seems to be the consensus that hotel points are better than miles transfer so I'm considering maximizing those. I did the math and I would only get approximately 2500 miles per month and a lot more hotel points if I go all in on those.

To be honest, I have other motivations for the miles. My wife has a big international trip coming up next year so my plan was to use the CC rewards to buy all or most of her RT ticket and then use the miles to upgrade her on a Lufthansa flight.

Since there is so much experience on the FT forums, any advice for a new traveler? I've traveled quite a bit, but always as a poor student.

snic

Actually you should consider signing up for both UA and CO cards. That way you get a 30K bonus twice. That possibility will surely go away when the two frequent flier programs merge, so get it while you can.

Now that you're no longer a student, you're making money. That means you're also spending it. So definitely put as much of your expenses as possible on a UA-branded card. There are several available, and although some of them have annual fees that seem steep, if you end up putting tens of thousands of dollars a year on the card, the cost per mile is very reasonable.

hungarianhc

Here's a general good rule of thumb. Pick an airline. Stick to it, and get their points. Pick a hotel. Stick to it, and get their points. Find a credit card that you're happy with - and use it all the time. Honestly, that will get you 90% of the way there. The rest of the yammering here on Flyertalk is usually about maximizing the remaining 10%
Lots of people on flyertalk will advocate credit card churning - getting as many as possible to max the points, hitting the minimum spend, getting the points, and then canceling the card. I'm not in this camp. I have nothing against those who do it, but it could negatively affect your credit, and make that house for you and your wife a bit harder to buy - just something to consider...

theTheme

I thought I would post an update to the first post that I've put up. I'm a month on the road now and am already Gold with HH

I'm still using the AMEX card, the points to dollar ratio is just the best around. In addition, since I am expensing my travel arrangements, it allows me to get full value, in cash, for my credits.

I did find a very nice deal for car rentals. Rent using UA's website for National and get 1,000 bonus miles plus whatever you spent on the rental in miles. Works out to be about 1,500 miles a week on average.

Only 12 more segments to go before Executive!

1KSEA

Welcome to segment qualifying. I have made 1K the last eleven years on segments (all domestic). Just got harder for top level but see what you travel patterns turn out to be and reassess. Economy Plus is worth working for if you ever want to be able to open your laptop on a domestic flight.
One note - could be wrong but pretty sure that segment credit is based on flight number. I seem to remember flying from BNA-SEA connecting in DEN, but only got credit for one flight segment as the flights were listed as one flight number with a connection.
I believe this is true even if you actually change to a different plane. Same flight number means only one segment credit.
Random example is flight #386 SEA to BOS coming up on 9/26. One flight number but a connection with plane change in Denver. I think it still only counts as one segment (EQS)
If you plan on qualifying based solely on segments you may want to consider booking flights where each segment has a separate flight# so you get credit for each segment flown.
Safe Travels

WineCountryUA

On UA metal that is wrong. UA changed that a couple years ago. Believe CO is still a single segment for a "direct" flight but UA is no. One of those things that will change for someone after full integration.

StingWest

Regarding your wife's trip next year, one key thing is to start planning very early if you want to use miles for tickets or upgrades. I'm not sure about Lufthansa, but for most airlines you can start checking availability around 11 months out (more exactly, I think it's 331 days or something). Most airlines have very few "free" tickets or upgrades available that you can actually book in advance, so you need to start looking right at the 11 month window for availability. This is especially true for business or first class, less so for coach.

Also, when using miles to purchase "free" tickets, keep an eye on the hidden extras (taxes and fees) that you have to pay. These vary wildly: United's are not too horrible, but other airlines (notably Virgin Atlantic) can charge $600+ per coach ticket for these "free" tickets booked with miles.

And finally, you mentioned using CC points to buy a ticket. Some non-airline CC programs give you one "point" per $100 spent, which you can use to buy "any ticket, any time". The problem with this is that the tickets you buy this way may cost you more in effect than if you used an airline credit card to "purchase" them. For example, if a ticket in coach to Europe costs $800, you will have to spend $80000 on your card to get enough points. If you instead use an airline card that gives you 3X miles per dollar, and a coach ticket on United costs 55,000 miles (assuming a Saver reward), you would "only" have to spend $18,300 to get this ticket (excluding taxes and fees). The example become much more extreme if you want to travel in business class (which, trust me, you will!), where to purchase tickets cost about $3000 minimum.