How to pick an Airline loyalty program

In order to earn miles/points you must belong a either a hotel or airline loyalty program. Today we will discuss how to pick a airline program.

In the US we have major airlines ie: American, United and Delta to name a few and discount airlines like Spirit or Frontier. For the purpose of this discussion we will focus on the major airlines. And since this for beginners, I will suggest you only pick one airline. You may fly on other airlines for various reasons i.e. price, vacation bundle, destination, etc. But I want to focus on creating one main account for now.

The following is a list of criteria to help you decide which loyalty program to join.

1. Your proximity to the airport. Your local airport may only be serviced by certain airlines. I would recommend picking an major airline that is local to you. Especially if your airport is an hub. Being a hub will allow you to fly to most domestic destinations with a single flight, sometimes a connection may be necessary.

2. You travel for work on a regular basis and your job has a preferred airline. Then creating a loyalty account with that airline may make more sense.

3. You already have a personal preference based on a previous trip.

For me when I picked my main account it was based on items 1 and 3 above. Although I have accounts with other airlines I primarily fly on one airline. The more you fly with a given airline you will start to earn status after reaching a dollar amount on tickets purchased and number of miles flown. For instance you may to purchase $3000 of airline tickets and flown 25000 miles in a year. After reaching that milestone you will get bumped to the next level in your program. The more you fly the higher you will go in your program. The status will help you earn more award miles and upgrades faster. Each program is different and you will have to review the program guidelines for your specific program.

Once you have picked your airline, go to that airlines website and create your loyalty account. After you create your account, you will receive your loyalty account number.

In order to earn credit for flying you must associate this number with any flights you take.

In some cases you may be even get credit for flights going back six months to a year depending on the airline. After you have created your account, please respond to this post and let me know which account you created.