Frequent flyer help sought.
 

I have just returned from New Zealand having made the return journey from Heathrow on Thai ( really good airline!). It seems a shame not to join a FF scheme as presumably I will have amassed quite a few miles. I am a leisure traveller.
Until some years ago when all the schemes seemed to reorganise and streamline their awards I was a member of quite a number and understood the perks and advantages. However since using Air France miles for a flight from EDI to PHL when the "taxes" turned out to be almost as much as a ticket on the open market, I have run them down. I still have about 80000 on Delta which don't seem to have an expiry date and otherwise hold Avios in the UK.
Thrown into the mix is that I have a return flight booked from MAN to PHL 27th -31st March on US Airways
Can someone help me with these queries?
1.Which scheme can I join to give me the most flexibility and hopefully no expiry date for these two airlines? I see that on the 30th March US Airways will leave Star Alliance and join One World. That suggests to me that out of Thai and US Airways it would be better to join Thai? (but I could also join any of the other partners of Thai) .
2. I have a flight from MAN to KTM booked in November on Etihad. Is it possible that there is a scheme which will accomodate all three airlines in the same account?
3. Just by way of information my holidays by and large take place in Europe when I fly on budget airlines- which ever ones suit the particular circumstances.
Many thanks

Can't help with the Delta Skypesos, but for the Etihad and US Airways flights, you can sign up for American Airlines' AAdvantage program and credit both those trips to your AA account. US Airways is merging with AA, so any flights booked on US flights can be credited to an AA account, and AA is also partners with Etihad, so the miles on those flights can also be added to the AA account. Here's a page showing AA's airline partnerships and earn/burn details: http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/main.jsp

As for the Thai Airlines trip just completed, I'd look at the US Airways website, or maybe phone their UK office, to see if you could retroactively apply those miles to a US Airways account. (Some airlines will allow miles to be posted after flying, others not.) If they did, then open a US account too, and have the Thai miles put there. Sometime later this year or next, US and AA frequent flyer accounts will be merged, so this would be a way of getting those Thai miles into your redeemable balance on AA. Hope that makes sense.

Most frequent flyers (including yours truly) will tell you that you want to minimize the number of FF accounts you possess - one airline per global alliance (Star Alliance, Oneworld, Skyteam) at most, so that you don't end up with a bunch of "orphan" miles/points, with balances too small to use effectively.

Just don't want you posting here in a few years that you have been collecting miles towards a trip and rules or airline alliances changed so that you can't use them as intended. Once you decide, you might also consider getting an affiliated credit card with you airline of choice - they all seem to offer 25,000-50,000 bonus miles after a certain number of charges.

I'll add this to the wise advice above: Most miles will not expire as long as you continue to have some activity in your account. I think 18 months is the standard these these. That's not asking a lot to have some activity (fly or redeem) every year-and-a-half. There is a reason they are called FREQUENT-flyer programs. :)

Yes. Put all your eggs in one basket and build on that account.

Flyertalk has an area where you post your travel habits and what perks are important to you and they will suggest what FF program might be best for you.

Thank you for your help, you've given me a lot to work on.

FF plans are work if you want to use them to their maximum potential.