Questions and Answers

Hi guys! We have mileage accounts for several airlines- Virgin Atlantic, Asiana, ANA and Turkish. We are based in San Francisco and have atleast 1-2 family trips to India and back each year. Like to travel PE class most times. Unfortunately, due to pricing and scheduling we end up with different airlines for the travel and hence several different mileage accounts. Wanted to know if there is a good strategy to consolidate these miles spread over 3 or 4 accounts? I believe that except Virgin, the other three are part of Star Alliance. Is there one program of those which is superior than the others in terms of redemption and we should add future miles into that? Also, any 1-2 credit cards we should be considering to generate more miles?
Hope my questions make sense. Thanks!

Hi all,

I have some accounts with many points and some accounts with very few points. I never know when my points near expiration, how much effort I should put in to “save” them if it’s a small amount.

Two examples below:

I have some Alaska miles expiring soon (~3000). I don’t fly Alaska and probably won’t fly Alaska for a long time. I’ve also never had status with them. Do I put in the effort to save these miles? For example, I know if I book a Qantas flight, I could credit the miles to Alaska Airlines but I value the Qantas miles more since I live in Australia now.

Alternatively, I have some United miles also expiring soon. I used to have lots of United miles until I used most of them (I have under 1000 miles remaining). I used to have United status as well. I don’t think I’ll be flying United for awhile. Do I put in the work to save these miles?

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sarah

Generally speaking you cannot combine miles across FF programs, even if they’re in the same alliance. Some FF programs have household accounts where you can pool miles from family members within the same program.

As for “orphaned” miles, if you don’t think you’re going to use them you can always donate them. But don’t be too quick to discard them. For example, if you’re planning to earn Qantas status or fly within AUS then those miles are fine but if you’re thinking of using them to fly to/from the US then Alaska is still a viable choice. It takes 128K Qantas miles each way for a US-AUS flight in business but Alaska charges only 55K each way for flights on Qantas.

Hi! Can someone reply to my original question in this thread? Not looking for someone else to post their own questions here. To add to my original query, we just booked Business Class tix on KLM rt SFO to Delhi for $2400. I dont have their Flying Blue membership or any other airline partner membership. What is my best option to collect the miles from this trip? Hoping to avoid opening another mileage account here. Thanks!

Your original question asked about consolidating miles across programs and that question was answered.

As for KLM flights, you can credit those to Delta if you wish. Find the fare class for your flights and check out wheretocredit.com to see where you’d earn the most points.

Hi K Tandon – This is Sarah B here. I had created a new thread with a different title and everything for my question. I’m not sure how it ended up here under your thread? Unless when they were reviewing my question to approve it, they decided to combine both of our questions into 1 thread. Wasn’t my intent.

My thoughts on your question though – I would definitely consider consolidating miles then under a general credit card like Chase Reserve points or Amex points, so you have the flexibility to choose whichever airline you like. I love the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which has a $450 fee but gives you $300 in travel credit a year. The Chase points are great and seem to be considered one of the best. However, if you prefer a certain Star Alliance airline, maybe you should consider getting a credit card with one of those airlines and you can use your miles from the credit card to book across the Star Alliance.

Hi K Tandon – This is Sarah B here. I had created a new thread with a different title and everything for my question. I’m not sure how it ended up here under your thread? Unless when they were reviewing my question to approve it, they decided to combine both of our questions into 1 thread. Wasn’t my intent.

My thoughts on your question though – Given what you said, I would definitely consider earning points under a general credit card like Chase Reserve points or Amex points, so you have the flexibility to choose whichever airline you like. I love the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which has a $450 fee but gives you $300 in travel credit a year. The Chase points are great and seem to be considered one of the best. There are tons of articles on how to maximize the Chase points. However, if you prefer a certain Star Alliance airline, maybe you should consider getting a credit card with one of those airlines and then you should be able to use your miles from the credit card to book across the Star Alliance.

Thanks, Sarah B. No worries. Its all good. I just have the regular Chase Freedom card, so not sure if that will help. Unfortunately, dont prefer a particular airline. It all comes down to travel dates and pricing for us every year. Case in point- just bought those business class tix on KLM- never flown business class and KLM either. But thought that the deal was pretty good considering it was just a few hundred $ more than premium economy, which is our preferred class of travel.