Frequent-Flier-Cards-Cropped1There are tons of airline mileage programs out there, and every airline has its own program. Learning how each one works can take a lot of time. If you spread your earning across too many different programs, you not only waste extra effort, but may also end up with miles scattered everywhere and not enough in any one program to book the award ticket you actually want. So how should you decide which mileage programs deserve your attention? Today, let’s talk about which programs may be the best fit for you.

If you’re not sure what airline miles are, don’t worry—you can start with our introduction to airline miles and hotel points.

You might say, “I just credit miles to whichever airline I buy my ticket from.” But is that really the best choice? Sometimes crediting flights to a partner program within the same alliance can be more valuable. In our article Introduction to Airline Alliances, examples 1 and 2 compare different programs and show that crediting to the operating airline’s own program is not always the most rewarding option.

So what factors matter when choosing a mileage program?

What kind of award ticket do you want your miles to book?

Before you start earning miles, it helps to first imagine what kind of award ticket you want to redeem. That way, you can work backward from your goal and shorten the earn-to-redeem cycle. Below are some mileage programs that offer especially good value for different types of trips:

For example, if you want to redeem flights from China to East Asia or Southeast Asia, we recommend Air Canada AC because a round-trip economy award costs only 20,000 miles, and round-trip business class is just 30,000 miles. So if you’re earning Aeroplan miles, you may be able to book the ticket you want pretty quickly.

If you’re not familiar with the abbreviations, check out this guide to common abbreviations.

Can the miles be transferred from other points programs?

For example, let’s say I have 34,000 UA miles, but I want to book a one-way ticket back to China and need 35,000 UA miles. What do I do if I’m short? If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer 1,000 points from your credit card account into UA miles and book that ticket home. So if a mileage currency can be transferred in from the three major bank points programs and SPG, that’s a huge advantage. Not enough miles? Use points to fill the gap.

Among the programs mentioned above, most can be transferred from UR, MR, TYP and SPG:

What airlines do you usually fly, and what fare classes do you buy?

If you usually fly Cathay Pacific economy back to China, then crediting those flights to AA is definitely not a good choice, because most Cathay Pacific economy fares do not earn AA miles (see Cathay’s AA earning chart). In that case, a better choice would be Cathay’s own Asia Miles program or British Airways BA. Does that mean you should ignore AA miles entirely? Not at all. AA miles can still be used to redeem Cathay flights back to China, and business class and first class redemptions can be especially valuable. You can also earn AA miles through Citi AA co-branded credit cards and SPG transfers.

What if you usually fly United economy back to China? In our Introduction to Airline Alliances, we mentioned that crediting those flights to Singapore Airlines SQ can be a better option. At the same time, UA miles are still important because when redeeming United-operated flights, using UA miles still has major advantages.

What if you’re a big spender and usually fly United business class or first class back to China? Then don’t overthink it—just credit to UA. United awards miles based on ticket price, so the more you spend, the more you earn.

Your home airport

Traditional airlines all have their own hubs. What is an airline hub? For example, if you want to fly from San Jose to Tampa, Google Flights may show several options like these:

Screenshot 2015-07-04 10.27.53You can see that flying US Airways requires a connection in Phoenix PHX, flying UA requires a connection in Houston IAH, and flying Delta requires a connection in Atlanta ATL. Those three airports are hub airports for those three airlines. This is generally how U.S. airlines route passengers: each airline has several hubs, and most flights either depart from or arrive at those hub cities. So if you need to travel from a non-hub airport to another non-hub airport, you usually have to connect through a hub. Here are the major hub airports for several U.S. airlines:

United UA: Washington (IAD), Houston (IAH), New York/Newark (EWR), Denver (DEN), Chicago (ORD), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Guam (GUM), Tokyo (NRT).

American AA+US: Dallas (DFW), Philadelphia (PHL), Charlotte (CLT), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Washington (DCA), Phoenix (PHX), New York (JFK/LGA), Chicago (ORD).

Delta DL: Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis (MSP), Cincinnati (CVG), Detroit (DTW), New York (JFK/LGA), Salt Lake City (SLC), Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), Memphis (MEM), Tokyo (NRT).

Alaska Airlines AS: Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX), Anchorage (ANC).

So what does this have to do with choosing a mileage program? If you live in a city that is a hub for a particular airline, it’s usually best to choose that airline’s mileage program, or a partner program within the same alliance, because you’ll have more award booking options. For example, if you live in Dallas, AA or BA can both be great choices: AA for long-haul flights, BA for short-haul flights. If you want to fly to Beijing, you can redeem 35,000 AA miles for the nonstop DFW-PEK flight. But if you use UA miles, you’ll need at least one connection, which is less convenient than flying nonstop.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and join the discussion.