Is a frequent flyer club worth it for 1-3 RT flights?
It depends on your motivation for accumulating miles. Mileage for free flights is best accumulated through credit cards or other loyalty programs, you’ll save more money just buying the cheapest flight available through any carrier than the value of “free” flights bought with miles. This applies for most people who are travelling for personal reasons. Accumulating mileage to qualify for elite status (automatic upgrade to first/business class, access business lounges, etc) is worth the price of loyalty if you fly very frequently, i.e. domestic more than once per month or transcontinental more than once per quarter. This usually applies to business travellers or very rich people.
I was in a long distance relationship for two and a half years (Houston – Seattle). We flew to see each other about once a month or so, spent all the holidays together and frequently traveled abroad together. That said, a number of those flights were paid for with frequent flyer miles. What I’ve learned: Typically one company has the cheapest flights and most convenient flights. Once you find it, you’ll stick to it (in our case, it was Continental since no-one else flew directly from IAH to SEA at the time) and it’s very unlikely that you’ll be flying different airlines all the time. With that in mind, it’s certainly worth it to sign up for a frequent flyer program: you have nothing to lose. Continental frequent flyer miles suck. I’ve been at their “elite” level for a couple of year, which is nice because it saves me and family all kinds of fees, but when it comes to redeeming miles for flights, Alaska Airways is the way to go. Case in point: I flew my sister from Bulgaria to the US wi
