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Thanks Ian.
I guess Hawaiian Air earns the most miles but only on Hawaiian air proper not partner airlines. So I guess you mean its easy to redeem miles for Jetblue tickets, or do you mean Hawaiian Airline tickets? I guess the biggest issue is the expiration date that is pretty short.
Yes I did the AAdvantage miles thing on JAL back in 2016. Alas AAdvantage is no longer as flexible on earning and redeeming on partners as they used to be. Particularly with the removal of Hawaiian airlines for booking or redeeming miles on mainland and Hawaii flights. I remembered how easy it was to gain enough miles towards rewards on AAdvantage and how simple it was to book flights operated by partner airlines including with miles.
Though I guess KAL and JAL both allow miles to be pooled from family members though I would like to inquire more about the annual charges thing. Great to learn that Alaska air flights earn miles on KAL. As these days VirginAmerica is now a part of Alaska Airlines.
Glad to learn that Delta has good service and miles that don't expire. I never flew on Delta so I am not certain becoming a member would be the best unless they have an awesome mileage program that I can use to fly their partners.
I've never really done the comparison, and I've never used any frequent flyer plan. But I have a suspicion that frequent flyer is like grocery coupons -- you gain less then you give up by the limitations and brand name pricing.
I've flown intercontinental nine times in the past four years, and got some really good fares by searching for the cheapest flight regardless of airline. I think if I always had to fly an airline within a frequent flyer network, I would have paid more in higher fares than the value of the benefit. Not to mention the expectation that frequent flyer rewards are an enormous hassle to try to negotiate.
I've never really done the comparison, and I've never used any frequent flyer plan. But I have a suspicion that frequent flyer is like grocery coupons -- you gain less then you give up by the limitations and brand name pricing.
I've flown intercontinental nine times in the past four years, and got some really good fares by searching for the cheapest flight regardless of airline. I think if I always had to fly an airline within a frequent flyer network, I would have paid more in higher fares than the value of the benefit. Not to mention the expectation that frequent flyer rewards are an enormous hassle to try to negotiate.
I agree with you about searching for flights based on FF enrollment rather than price. Unless you're an airline road warrior or somebody else is footing the bill, you're better off booking to get the cheapest fare or best routing.
HOWEVER, I vehemently disagree that enrolling in FF programs is useless. I have enrolled on virtually every airline I fly. I don't fly frequently (about 3-4 times per year for vacations), but have managed to get several free tickets to Europe. There's no cost or downside to joining, so why not?
I am curious what are some of the better frequent flyers program these days. It appears airlines mileage programs are getting increasingly stingy...... Yes Jetblue is a partner with both Hawaiian Air miles and AAdvantage and members of either can earn/redeem miles on travel on Jetblue airlines.
FF schemes are more stingy & cumbersome than in the past for sure. I'm not sure about redeeming AA miles on Jetblue though, never heard of that.
I'll also disagree on the lack of value of FF program participation, if one is based in the US & not a road warrior for work the primary way to accrue points is through wise use of airline affiliated credit cards primarily. Just yesterday I got a Barclays credit card that gave me 60K AA points upon first use & paying the annual fee ($95), 60K points is a round trip ticket to Europe or So. America, a $500+ value. Do that a few times a year & keep your credit good, the constant drip in of monthly CC payment points keep miles from expiring, there are other ways too.
The best program is the one that has the most convenient flights from where you are to where you want to go, keeping airline partners in mind. A good argument may be made for a good cash rebate card instead of miles I think but I have never done the math. I pay for cheap flights & use the miles for expensive ones. I used to pay for most flights & upgrade with miles but that has gone up in copay costs.
I'll take delta whenever I can. The miles don't expire. I'm unaware of ANY other awards program that has that.
So what? Have you looked at how many miles it actually takes to go anywhere on Delta? The miles better not expire, because it will take you forever to earn enough by fling to redeem a ticket. (Delta doesn't even post an actual award chart any more - you won't know until you go to book a ticket how many miles you'll actually need for an award.)
The reason to fly Delta is that it has great service. Its frequent flyer program, on the other hand, is lousy - the worst in the industry unless you're a big credit card spender and serious card churner. Then it's merely OK.
And on the other major US carriers, it's easy to keep miles from expiring. Buy something you can use from one of their shopping sites once or twice a year to earn a few miles, and your miles will never expire.
I second your suggestion to join the FF programs, though (although I suggest joining one from each major alliance rather than for every airline you might ever step foot on, and credit your flights to those three airline programs; you'll accrue a usable number of miles more quickly that way).
So what? Have you looked at how many miles it actually takes to go anywhere on Delta? The miles better not expire, because it will take you forever to earn enough by fling to redeem a ticket. (Delta doesn't even post an actual award chart any more - you won't know until you go to book a ticket how many miles you'll actually need for an award.)
I've actually had some good luck with their floating award charges lately- got four tickets in C+ for my BIL to come from Pittsburgh to VPS this summer for a total of 94K. If BIL wasn't 6'4" the normal economy option would have cost me something like 76K miles for four round trip tickets.
If you like Delta but hit the credit cards heavily, you can credit both flights and transfer points to the Air France/KLM Flying Blue program and use that for domestic Delta tickets (Just note that their search engine for partner awards is wonky so you'll probably have to do a phone reservation to use them) The FB changes in 2018 actually made it significantly easier to keep FB miles form expiring and you can transfer from pretty much of any of the cards that let you collect general travel rewards points (Chase, AmEx, I think Citi and Capitol One Venture too)
I book the frequent flyer club depends on where I want to go. I use my miles right away, I don’t save them for anything.
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