Have become disenchanted with the Alaska FF miles program. Their partner airlines, with the exception of Condor and BA offer only econ seats when flying over saltwater.
BA has astronomical fees to fly biz class, and Condor goes only to Frankfurt
Those of you who have AA or Delta, or both, what have you to say about those programs?
Thank you
Every program has its positive and negative points.
And it's always a bit tricky looking for the program(s) that work best for you. There's the "earning points" side, and then there's the "using the points" side (complicated by the "using the points for what you actually want" side).
United has been my go-to program for decades. It's far from perfect (and has been badly devalued in the past year or two) but I still find it's often useful.
AA can be really good or really awful for award flights (if going to Europe, they'll push you to BA). It's hard to rack up AA points quickly.
Delta is a disaster, IMHO.
Disclaimer: I've been playing this game a long time and have good reserves of points in multiple programs. I also have picky tastes when it comes to long flights. YMMV.
PM sent. 😎
Always had good luck with AA and you can quickly pick up two free RT’s to Europe with the AA Citibank card and AA Aviator card…been to Europe 16 times and never paid for the ticket- just taxes.
I don’t use an affinity card with any airline though I am a member of 8 different airline mileage programs. I accrue miles on my American Express card and transfer them to the appropriate Amex partner airline’s program when I need to book a ticket. One of the perks I’ve used often is that many of their airline partners often run promotions that add up to 20% bonus miles when transferring Amex points to their mileage program. So if you need 60,000 miles for a ticket, you need only transfer 50,000 miles. I’ve flown business and economy on most of those flights, never having seen a business class blackout.
Since 2001 I’ve made 17 journeys to Europe with number 18 coming up. All except one were done with air mileage. About half were in Business class.
I have no issues with Delta, but they fly where I want them to, their partners have good routes, gained status when I flew for business, and between the pandemic and their credit card, can manage to keep some status without flying frequently. I use their credit card, pay for the privilege, but the perks I get in baggage, lounge, upgrades, and other perks pays for it. I probably get enough miles in a year to pay for a Europe ticket, though I usually shop for deals and pay cash, saving miles for when I need to travel. But I never fly Delta One, or even now, Premium Select.
We love to fly Alaska but I agree with your points about their partners. Still, BA fees are a pretty reasonable price to pay for Business Class, which we now fly overseas to minimize the wear and tear of long flights in aging bodies.
I have switched my purchasing affinity to Cap One Venture and then use the points there to pay for tickets. You can buy any travel product from flight to car to hotel and “pay” for it with points so there is no airline restriction. Sometimes combining that with FF miles on any airline is a viable strategy.
I have both AA and Delta credit cards to accumulate airline points. I seem to get more points using my AMEX card. It is also good for free global entry, baggage, upgrades, etc. even with a $250 fee/year.
Changing or canceling point travel is also pretty easy in both programs and the availability of decent flight itineraries has been reasonably good in both - although I think Delta has the edge. Also, with Delta, you can choose between cash, points, or cash + points. I am not a big spender by all means, but I seem to accumulate enough points for "free" flights to Europe each year. I prefer to play the Airline point game rather than a reward card. A $1400 dollar flight to Europe free on points works better for me than a cashback card ever would.
It just depends on your preference and travel style. I would also consider what airline has the closest hub to you.
I don't use my Alaskan airline card anymore. I got it for a trip to Hawaii and ended up flying to Hawaii last spring on Delta, cheaper and more direct from the midwest. I even tried to use the companion fare on Alaskan, but Delta was still the better option for us.
Margaret
I fly Alaska almost exclusively domestically. I fly their partners, AA and Aer Lingus, internationally but use my Alaska member number. Then I use my Alaska miles for domestic travel. My credit cards pay 5.25% cash back and I'd rather have cash than miles. I could use the credit card points for travel, but it doesn't price out.
I booked an international multi-city trip on AA this spring using miles. My flights were changed multiple times resulting in unacceptable departure times, with multiple layovers. I cancelled and booked on United using miles, and had non-stop flights. The AA codeshare flights to Europe through Heathrow have about $350 in fees. Added to a layover, this isn’t very appealing to me.
United is my go-to airline, and I’ve never had a problem getting award seats (albeit in economy) over the past ten years. I just pay for the premium seat.
I fly out of Washington-Dulles and usually end up on United and/or a partner, whether paying cash or using miles. I fly coach but often see business class tickets available when I'm shopping for mileage tickets. They are usually much more expensive (perhaps 5 times as many miles), and I can't bring myself to burn that many miles. However, United prices its one-way mileage tickets at half the round-trip cost, so it would be possible to book business class to Europe and coach on the way back.
I've been accumulating miles & points for years. Most of my flights are using AA or BA points in business class.
I like taking a daytime flight to Europe. Usually, JFK to LHR. Going to London, AA always pushed to BA with its high fees. Returning was a mixture of the two airlines. Since the pandemic, AA has offered its morning flight (JFK-LHR) to point holders with much lower fees than BA.
I''ve never had a problem booking a flight with AA or BA. I now try for AA with its lower fees and save my BA miles for intra-European fights that have virtually no fees.
However, one of the best ways to get a large amount of points in one go is to get the airline affiliated credit cards. The signup bonuses are key. When I signed up for my British Airways card, I was awarded 100,000 points just for using the card. There are no extra charges. The same is true for hotel cards and some, like Marriott, allow you to convert hotel points to airline miles. Plus the hotel cards give you a free night which is worth more than the yearly charge for the card. And every time you use the airline branded credit card, you get mileage for each dollar spent. As long as you pay off the card each month, it's a win
Has anyone really looked at AA’s pricing for flights next June? It does appear that filling seats on BA operated flights are being pushed while AA flights are way overpriced.. I do realize this is 10 months in the future but for those of us who love to plan…it’s crazy. I’ve been looking for pricing for flights to ATH out of DFW and premium economy is currently hovering around 6k and main cabin 2+k. I do not want to change flights @LHR….it was a mess when we went thru early July and still is.
I know I am an outlier—-I am willing to pay the high fees that BA charges in order to fly in business class—-it is still only about 1/3 to 1/6 the cost of a paid-for seat. We can only fly in business class on foreign trips for the sake of my husband’s back—-he needs the lie-flat seat for a flight that long. So using BA, we fly to Europe and back in business class for less than the cost of an economy seat. Ut I mostly use BA Avios for this, not AS miles.
I am actually quite happy with my Alaska miles—-we have flown in First on Qantas to Australia and to Japan on JAL with our Alaska miles. But I admit I was both lucky and diligent——I spent a fair amount of time studying the right time to search for those seats. You can’t just decide you are going to X a few weeks or months from now, and expect to find award seats in the premium cabin.
I have recently seen business class to Europe offered by Aer Lingus—- for an exorbitant number of miles, like 280,000 per seat. FinnAir to Europe shows up, very occasionally. I don’t think I have ever seen Icelandic premium seat offered, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
To South America, it seemed nearly impossible to score business class seats with Alaska miles, as the Saver seats (all that AA releases to partners) get snapped up right away by AA program members. So I joined the AA FF program to get our seats for Patagonia, but I haven’t stayed with it as I prefer Alaska’s program.
When searching the premium cabin options on the Alaska website, you do need to watch out for the dreaded “mixed cabin” offers. That is one Alaska feature I do not like—-it is deceptive.
Quite honestly the best use of Alaska miles is flying to Asia or Oceana with partners. Flying to Europe, your best option is finding availability with American or Iberia.
For the most part, I find that US programs are generally best for domestic travel and to really find the best deals for international you should invest in transferable points.
