I am going to be traveling a lot more begining this year, and was wondering about FF programs, and other possible services that would help me to save money and travel more.

Specificly...

1. How exactly do FF programs work and are they worth it for someone who doesnt travel for a living?

2. Do the Credit Card FF programs work with the actual airline FF programs, and are they worth it?

3. Basicly any info that i could use to save money and make traveling more often a reality.


Thanks for any info i get


P.S. Sorry for all the newbie posts asking for all kinds of info, but i have to start somewhere

www.flyertalk.com will answer any and every question you have if you can invest the time into reading the responses.

Short version: If you are flying at least 25K actual miles per year, you should absolutely pick a good FF program and be 100% loyal to it to max out the benefits.

Porker is right of course, and I would add that everyone of us should sign up for a major FF alliance. Most of us use credit cards anyways, so why not get miles for using it. Plus, there are way too many ways to earn miles (buying office supplies, dining, etc), check out UA for instance. Most cards w/airlines charge a bit more in interest, but still worthwhile.

One Card I've used is the Amex member rewards which lets you choose which of several airlines to deposit the miles (never expires). But Amex is Amex (not accepted as much as visa).

"By Porker on Monday, March 03, 2008 - 09:54 pm: Edit

www.flyertalk.com will answer any and every question you have if you can invest the time into reading the responses.

Short version: If you are flying at least 25K actual miles per year, you should absolutely pick a good FF program and be 100% loyal to it to max out the benefits."


Tks for the response, but i cant make heads or tails of that site. To me it is a site for someone who already understands FF programs. But for me i have no clue whatsoever, where to begin to understand it. Also i cant just read their FAQ, i need to search for a topic i want to read. But my problem is i have no clue where to even begin.

Thanks for trying, ill try and figure it out somewhere else.

(Message edited by Torque on March 04, 2008)

Where do you live, and where do you plan to travel. Start there, and then pick the airline with the best flights between home and wherever. Try and stick to that one airline, and see how it goes. Any airline you fly, sign up for their program, but stay with one airline if you can.

It won't matter until you get to 25k flight miles (not frequent flyer miles) per year. At that point you start to get some benefits - early boarding, upgrades, etc. Not great, but better than tourists and infrequent flyers who get nothing.

i have recently seen commercials on tv about a new amex card which has points that can be used anytime, anywhere . anyone got info ?

Torque: Cat has good advice, alot will depend on where you live and where you want to go. I've been with both Star Alliance (Staralliance.com) and Skyteam (Skyteam.com) which both works well out of LA. For me, Skyteam works well for me to Colombia, Central America, South America (CO, Copa, Delta); and Star Alliance is stronger or has more options if I go to Asia (UA, Singapore, Thai, Asiana, ANA, etc). UA is decent to Brazil. However, skyteam may have gotten better to Asia as it now includes China Southern, one of the larger Chinese airlines, and it always had NWA, CO, Korean, Malaysia.

I don't know much about the Oneworld alliance with American, Mexicana, etc. which may be good for South America.

I'd certainly not go with unaffiliated airlines like Grupo Taca or airlines with restricted partners such as EVA. Go with one of the big 3 alliances.

Johnny Roc: Plenty of Amex cards to choose from at www.americanexpress.com

For reward info, ttp://www.membershiprewards.com/
They have about a dozen airlines you can transfer miles to, including Continental, Delta, Mexicana, Singapore, etc.

Also, every airline will have a credit card unique to the airline to accrue miles only on that airline. Amex is unique in that you can transfer miles to several different FF programs.

(Message edited by merlin on March 04, 2008)

Another good site is frequentflier.com with some good basic articles and operated by a well known guru on this topic.

A decent overview of FF programs: http://www.frequentflier.com/ffp-006.htm

Here's an interesting discussion on airline credit cards:

http://www.frequentflier.com/card-intro.htm

Heres a nice discussion on Amex cards: http://www.frequentflier.com/card-amex.htm

As with anything else, it's best to study up on the basics and ask pointed questions. The FF topic is potentially never ending and everybody has an opinion. But you learn something everyday from the granny gurus in between the flames.

(Message edited by merlin on March 04, 2008)

Merlin, great info, thanks, and also solid advice by Catocony.

I may be letting one of I_am_Sancho's secrets out of the bag, but Aeromexico is apparently a severely underrated Sky Team option to Asia, not to mention Korean Air.

I would not recommend someone trying to load up on miles solely by using a credit card. Why? Because without status, all you MAY BE able to use miles on are free flights, and those with status usually have a more limited choice of an already frequently smaller pool of available seats. Just because you have 50k FF miles on a airline doesn't mean anything if you're a General Member.

I fly over 100k miles a year, spread across United and American with the occasional Delta or US Air flight, primarily just to keep my few miles left on those last two programs active. With the bonuses I accrue close to 200k ff miles per year, plus another 50-75k ff miles off of my United Visa card. So, at 250k or so ff miles per year, all I can really say is they aren't worth what they were just a few years ago. You frequently need 80-100k just for a coach seat since saver awards are hard on a lot of airlines during popular times. Then again, I guess getting 3 or so free flights to Rio a year, in either coach or business, with miles left over isn't a bad deal. But, 5 years ago, that would get me 3-4 business class seats with no hassle.

I generally agree with Cat about credit card miles and that the Airlines are getting really stingy these days about free tickets, and some are tacking on extra charges. But it seems that most of us will be using credit cards anyways, so my thought is to get rewarded for what we're doing anyways. I wouldn't got out of my way to get a new card or make new purchases just to get miles. Plus, miles can be used to upgrade on long flights, which are bit easier to come by than free tickets and a more efficient use of the miles IMO.

BTW: some airlines are better about free tx than others, IMO, Delta has a great website and has been better than CO ("Nopass") or NWA or UA about free tx.

Porker raises an interesting point, you can ask CO for instance to get you on some of the lesser known airlines on less popular routes -- i.e. Korean Air to Seoul then to BKK or Jakarta. COPA to central america is also part of Onepass and I've found it easier to get these free tx.

(Message edited by merlin on March 05, 2008)

Unless you are logged in to delta.com as a Delta elite, anything Skyteam you find available on delta.com should also be available with Continental or Northwest miles even if you have to call and ask for it. In fact the Japanese Northwest site is pretty much the best for searching for Skyteam awards, at http://asiares.nwa.com. There you can include Skyteam partners Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, Continental, Delta, KLM and Northwest. Unless you are logged in as a Northwest elite, anything (other than non-Skyteam NWA partners) you find there should also be available with Continental, or Delta miles. I usually start my searching, flight by flight, on asiares.nwa.com and then call Continental on the phone to book it once I have found available dates. Sadly, AFIK there is no way to search COPA, China Southern or Korean Air on-line so you have to call and ask for availibity on those, which makes planning more difficult.

When you consider you can mix and match partners on one award ticket and have free stopovers and can arrive and return from different cities in the same region you can really get creative. Like Colombia or Peru on a combo of AeroMexico flights and Copa flights,,, Manila on a combination of AeroMexico, Northwest and Continental,,, AeroMexico/Korean Air..........

IAS, now that's being creative and appreciate you sharing your "trade secrets" (now there will be fewer free seats :-0) This is why I always wanted to start a Mongerer FF'ers section. A natural intersection of two obsessive hobbies.

Good advice on having to be creative these days and flexible. The options are potentially limitless but you gotta put in the pounding of the keyboard and telephones to get results.

Thanks a lot for all the help people :D