All this info will be useful to many - BUT - remember that FF programs can change, either by their rules or in practice. For example, it is really tough to find a FF ticket on many airlines using the lowest number of m iles for redemption. Some routes at some times never have FF tickets available, even if you try to book at earliest possible moment.

While I believe Delta will be flying in November 2006, so many older airlines are in so much financial trouble, that who knows. It would be unfortunate if you jumped thru all sorts of hoops and then found that your "miles" were unusable for whatever reason. Several angry past posts here about people who saved miles for years for specific purpose and then could not use them.

I hope your mile collection and redemption goes well - just don't count on those miles as "money in the bank".

hipvirgochick,
No it's not possible to combine Alaska and Delta miles for one ticket. The miles necessary for redemption must come from one account or the other. You can transfer your Alaska miles to Delta through points.com but the exchange rate is VERY VERY poor, i.e. 10000 AS miles turns into 920 DL miles.

jbee,

I would check with United to see if such a transfer is possible, or affordable. Most of the programs I have seen either don't allow such transfers, or allow them only during specified periods, and for a fee. I just got a breathless email from Continental offering, for 75 days, the chance to transfer miles between accounts for only $7.50 per 500 miles.

patty - i didn't know about points.com, but you're right, that's a terrible exchange! i thought since they were partners it might be possible to combine, apparently not.

cleveland - at $150 per 10,000 miles just to transfer, that doesn't sound like a good deal to me either...

I think when jbee said 'transfers', she meant connections. I'm assuming the friend will just be redeeming an award ticket using her UA miles in jbee's name.

Wow again! Thanks for all the additional information. We checked into the United thing and my friend could indeed book a ticket in my name using her points. Unfortunately, the other seat we would have to buy would be in the $6,000 range, which defeats the purpose...

We've gone back and forth debating the CC idea in order to bulk up on FF miles for Delta and my husband came to the same conclusion... What if we went through all of that and ended up not being able to use them? Gail also makes a good point that the airline world tends to change from year to year. I'm just planning too far ahead... Plus, we try so hard to avoid CC debt, it's really against our nature to charge everything to one.

So long story short, if we want to go upper class, I think we're just going to have to pay. It's a bummer, but a fact of life for the vacation only fliers of the world.

Thanks again for everyone's help. We never could have found all that information on our own!

Don't be so discouraged. Just as airlines sell highly restricted tourist class tickets at a deep discount, some also sell highly restricted front cabin tickets at a discount. If you are willing to commit to an unrefundable ticket, as most of us do (buy travel insurance as protection), you may be able to find a very good price on business class tickets. Some people have run the figures and found that a highly restricted business class ticket can actually cost less than a tourist ticket upgraded with miles, now that so many airlines are making you pay cash plus miles for the possibility of an upgrade.

I am a frequent flyer on one airline, but only because we fly out of one of their hubs, and they have good service on the routes we fly often. I think I would come out ahead, financially, by just taking the best fare on any airline each time. If you travel to a lot of areas, I don't think there is any one airline that covers all of them well. We often fly CLE to SAN to visit family. One time I decided to stop in Las Vegas, as it was right on the way, and they had a Monet exhibition. My airline that does so well flying from CLE to SAN (passing right by Las Vegas) wanted to route us from CLE to Las Vegas, then from Las Vegas to San Diego via Seattle! So while they are very good on some routes, their coverage up and down the west coast is very weak. If you can avoid playing the miles game, I think you have a lot more freedom.

clevelandbrown-

Thanks for the words of encouragement! We have a similar situation since we live in Las Vegas. My family is in Denver and my husband's is in Albuquerque. Needless to say, we fly whoever is cheapest since both of those routes tend to vary widely.

We are going to avoid the FF thing, just because of the effort involved for us non FF people. I'm pretty obsessive (bet it didn't show) over getting the best price I can get, so hopefully something will pop up sometime next year.

Actually, we came up with another idea regarding Virgin, but I think I'll post it as a new thread, since it really doesn't relate to my original scheming. Hopefully someone else can benefit from it, too!