ON BOARD WITH RANDY PETERSEN

Randy Petersen HOW TO KEEP THOSE MILES
December 2004
by Randy Petersen

Question:
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and for the past eight or nine years I have been collecting Delta SkyMiles. Now that Delta has dropped Dallas/Fort Worth as a hub, I know that it's not prudent for me to continue to collect Delta miles. With which airline should I begin collecting miles?

Answer:
Great question, because it offers me a chance to comment on a situation that may have been overblown. It's true that Delta has announced plans to leave much of Dallas, and a few short years ago that would have been cause for panic. (It probably still is for many SkyMilers who live in the Dallas area).

However, I would actually suggest that today it's no big deal. While Delta may leave the area, there are three other airlines in the area, including a large Texas airline to take up the slack, and still give you most of what Delta was providing you in terms of benefits.

SkyMiles currently has reciprocal benefits, miles and awards with both Continental (that other Texas airline), Northwest, and now, Alaska Airlines.

Delta has established codeshares for most of these flights, and "de-hubbing" Dallas will lead to even more codeshares. What this means is that you really don't need to start all over again with another program—you can continue to add to your SkyMiles account, and add in points from Membership Rewards. Simply continue to show your SkyMiles card when flying.

I suggest staying with Delta in this situation, because they currently have a better award-redemption history than Continental, and at the end of the day, you want to be happy with the rewards of your loyalty.

Question:
I had 768,000 miles on British Airways. I didn't track the date, and they expired for 36 months of inactivity a month ago. BA says "too bad," and I have no recent activity on any partners for leverage. Is anything possible?

Answer:
The short answer, unfortunately, is that there is no remedy.

For the benefit of your future earnings (and most programs have these sort of expiration policies), let me lay out the plan that I follow to make sure none of my own miles expire.

The general policy is that you need activity in your accounts at least once every 36 months. What I have done is to devote some of my partner activity to these programs. For instance, because mileage earned from car rental partners is so low, I have set my profile with the three car renters I typically use to earn miles in frequent flyer programs I rarely use anymore.

For instance, I too have British Airways miles. I have my Avis car rental profile set to that program, which means that as long as I rent a car from Avis once every three years, I have partner activity, and my Executive Club miles won't expire.

I have another car rental partner defaulting to my US Airways account, and yet another car rental partner defaulting to my Midwest Airlines account. Because these other two airlines don't fly to my home airport, I'm less likely to fly them often, but don't want to worry about my miles expiring.

You could just as easily use this system with other partners like dining clubs or telephone companies, since these are less likely to be your big mileage-makers.

You can contact Randy Petersen at randy@insideflyer.com.

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