When to sign up for FF miles
 

Hi,

I have two questions and have been spending time (wasting!) searching for the answer so I have decided to ask:

1)I am flying on United and Lufthansa to Europe. I think becoming a United Airlines ff member is better for me since most of my flights originate in the US.

Shall I sign up BEFORE I get on my first United flight? Where do I do it? Are there sign up bonuses?

2) I will be flying Egypt Air to Cairo...is Egypt Air part of any alliance? Where shall I sign up with them?

Thanks

Go ahead and sign up now. You can do it online at www.united.com. Click on Join Mileage Plus from the Mileage Plus menu.

Egypt Air is not part of any alliance yet (well, except for Arabesk, which I assume is useless to you). But Lufthansa will start code-sharing some flights with them in October 2007, and everybody expects Lufthansa to sponsor them for membership in the Star Alliance very soon. But who knows if it will happen before you go.

From where to where are you flying Egypt Air? When? Have you bought your ticket yet? If you are flying Munich-Cairo after October 1 and haven't bought your ticket yet, you could purchase it from Lufthansa and get United miles.

Thank you for the reply. Tremendous help. Awesome.

I am flying JFK-Cairo and flights within Egypt.

Next time I will know better.

Thanks

Just remember if you havent already signed up....Your frequent FF account must be the same name as your airline ticket is issued in which must be the same name as on your passport.Best of Luck and have a great trip.

Hi again,

Got the FF number, called United and they put in the record locator and it does show in my United account on line, HOWever it does not show the complete itinerary, just the first leg of the trip.

I am an AA ff and their website is my benchmark... United does not show the full itinerary?

Hum, what am I doing wrong?

Perhaps they did not put it on the other leg. I'd call them back.

Are you looking at "Current itineraries" on the "My itineraries" page? If so, that will just show the first segment of the trip. On the right-hand side of the line for your trip, just to the right of the record locator, you should see links for "View/modify" and "e-receipt." Click on "view/modify" and you should see the entire itinerary. If it doesn't show up there, then call customer service to make sure everything is in order.