frequent flyer memberships

  It hurts my head to think how many frequent flyer memberships I have. I travel quite a bit and I never seem to earn any free tickets which makes sense considering the fact I spread out my miles to whichever airline has the best deal.

I know many are partners but how does this work?  For example, if I have a Virgin card and I fly Continental (a partner) do I get credit for Virgin? Can I then take the miles on the Virgin card and use it for a Continental ticket?

Is it possible for me to transfer the miles I have on say 3 different partner airlines to only one airline?

My favorite is Southwest's Rapid Rewards... make 8 roundtrips and you get a free ticket. I can count to 8 no problem. 

Can someone please put me out of my misery and on my way to earning free tickets? I nearly signed up for another membership today... stop the madness! 

ah the joys of the internet...

http://www.smartertravel.com/advice/ffrq/advice.php?id=95551

and more info...

http://www.smartertravel.com/ff/faq/



I'd still like to hear your stories and preferences too 

I like my Virgin frequent flyer program, because I can use miles towards getting money off fares, rather than having to wait until I have enough miles to get a whole "free" ticket.  It seriously mitigates the damage when trying to fly what is now a family of 4 adult fares to the US to visit my mother. 

I like my Virgin frequent flyer program, because I can use miles towards getting money off fares, rather than having to wait until I have enough miles to get a whole "free" ticket.  It seriously mitigates the damage when trying to fly what is now a family of 4 adult fares to the US to visit my mother. 

Oh is that how it works with Virgin? Thats good. I have never flown with them before.

i travel alot and i used to have loads of frequent flyer memeberships.  i have now consoidated down to three, one for each of the big airline worldwide alliances.  oneworld=BA, skyteam=continental, star alliance=us air.  i also have a BA amex to accumulate points. 

i never seem to fly at the right time to get free tickets- so i usually use them to upgrade on 10+hr flights. 

i didn't know that's how virgin's ff program worked- that's a great idea!  i will look to see if either of my three preferred ff programs offer that as well.

I can save them up to get free tickets as well - but their Miles + Money scheme is fantastic. 

I like my Virgin frequent flyer program, because I can use miles towards getting money off fares, rather than having to wait until I have enough miles to get a whole "free" ticket. 

wow that's great, perhaps I will keep that as my primary card for those partners.

I travel frequently for business. I have practically every airline mile card there is but most of my miles are on United because I'm from Washington DC (a United hub).  I finally reached Elite status for the first time this year. The way to gain enough points for a free flight is to try and remain loyal to one or two airline programs (for example  if you chose United, you can fly on Lufthansa, Austrian, Emirates and others from UK and still gain miles on your United plan).  If it's not a huge difference in cost, I will pay a little extra to fly on a United partner than fly a cheaper airline that doesn't give me any points.  Last year we earned enough miles that we got free tickets to Hawaii from DC but had to book almost a year in advance.

Nowadays you can earn miles without ever leaving the ground. For example on United, you can sign up for their credit card schemes. The downside is they have an annual fee. The absolute best card, if you can afford it, is the United Visa Platinum. It costs $130 a year but you get 15,000 miles bonus every year, a free companion flight ticket, plus 1 ELITE qualifying mile for every $1 you spend, which is better than just earning a regular mile for every $1 (Elite status is awesome, gets you lots of perks like free upgrades, which to me are much more coveted than a free flight).  Also read up the airline mileage club website for frequent promotions, like 2-for-1 miles on things like FTD flowers, hotel stays, even buying gas or groceries.

As for Virgin, don't join both Virgin and Continental plans. Chose one or the other, and then keep your miles combined. I dont know much about either plan but you should chose whichever card has the partners you will more likely use in the future. If you chose Continental, for example, Virgin will accept that card, or vice-versa.

Make sure also that your spouse or children (if any) sign up for their own cards to get their own miles.

One other major point: 

A big mistake that newbies make is to use their miles to get a free flight on what would otherwise be a relatively cheap ticket.  For example, if you have 25,000 miles, don't waste it on a free flight from NYC to Fort Lauderdale, a route which you can often find for just $99 roundtrip.  Instead, use it for routes that would otherwise be much more expensive. The most expensive routes are from medium-sized cities only served by a few airlines without competition from low-cost carriers. (i.e. El Paso to Albany) 

Or better yet, keep saving the miles for a trans-continental flight. For 40,000 miles you can fly beween US to Europe.  Just keep in mind that those free mileage reward seats go FAST during high-season (summer).

My personal preference is to use miles for upgrades. You get more for your money. Example: A roundtrip coach ticket from DC to Los Angeles is currently about $300. A business class ticket for the same route costs $1,000 RT.  Rather than wasting your free miles on a coach ticket, purchase the $300 ticket out of your own pocket, and then use your miles (normally 15,000 miles) to upgrade to business class. That's a $700 value! 

My husband is on an airplane at least twice a week, most of the times for times a week.... bit of a stupid job for someone who is afraid of flying but htat is an ENTIRELY different subject...  ... we used BA miles in the UK and had their BA American Express card. In the 2 years we had it, we earned 2 free flights to the US, as we put EVERYTHING on that card and paid it off. Here in the US, my husband prefers Southwest over anyone else. He loves their seating policies, has had the least amount of aggro with their people, can always change or refund his tickets at the last minute (which he seems to do a lot), and you earn free flights Really Quickly. In 6 months we've earned 4 free round trip flights... it is about the only benefit of him travelling so much!

thanks for sharing your stories. vaulable insight as always! 

Another thing with frequent flier miles is that they often partner with hotel chains and car-rental companies.  For example, with Hilton HHonors, I earn both Hilton points and AAdvantage miles.  Then to top that off, once I have a certain number of Hilton HHonors points, I can transfer that to my AAdvantage account.  They call it "double-dipping."  Points from most loyalty award programs can be filtered to other programs.  I've found that's the quickest way to really rack-up the miles for free flights.   

Thanks Stuzies... I hear about these opportunities (usually at some counter when I realize oh this would have been a great time to use my FF card) but it seems to require a bit of planning/thinking ahead hence why I've always just thrown my hands up in the air and never figured it out. Perhaps once I become loyal to one card I will become familiar with who belongs to which partnership.

Hi jklm, I just came across this article featured on AOL entitled "Frequent Flyer Miles:  Useless?"
How apropos!
Here's the link:  http://www.independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=478&category=13