Beginner's Guide: Airline Alliances, Miles, and Membership Programs

I noticed I had never written an intro to airline miles that was suitable for beginners. Recently, I happened to update a lot of airline mileage program articles, so I’m putting together a summary here to help beginners get started faster! We’ll answer a few questions so newcomers can get up to speed quickly.

• What are airline miles
• What is an airline alliance
• How to earn a large number of airline miles with credit cards
• Which airline should we pay attention to
• What is the use of an airline’s elite status, and how can you get it quickly
• A roundup of mileage program guides for each airline!

What are airline miles

Airline miles are actually not complicated. For example, Starbucks has its own rewards program, and its game currency is the little star. You get one little star for each transaction, and when you collect 12 little stars, you can exchange them for any Starbucks coffee. Note that these little stars can only be used at Starbucks: 12 little stars can be redeemed for a $5 coffee, but they cannot be exchanged for a $5 gift card from another store. So a program like this is simply a way to retain customers. After all, you earn stars with every transaction, and if you don’t use them, wouldn’t that be a waste? But to redeem those stars, you have to collect 12 of them—one short and it won’t work. That gives you the urge to keep spending there. Starbucks’ star system is a simple points program. Airlines have similar points programs too, except the reward is airline miles rather than stars. Another part of points programs is the elite status system, such as how many purchases you need to make to become a Gold card member.

An airline’s mileage system is basically a game that is just a little more complicated than the star system. When you spend money with an airline, they give you some perks to keep you as a customer, and those perks are airline miles. What can you do with these miles? Just like the star system, they can only be used with the corresponding airline and cannot be exchanged for cash or gift cards. Airline miles can be redeemed for award tickets, and award tickets function the same as regular tickets: they are both airline tickets that get you on a flight. So if you earn a large number of miles through flying, credit card spending, and sign-up bonuses, redeeming them for award tickets is essentially like getting free flights! Don’t underestimate the power of building up these miles. Once you have enough, you can redeem them for round-trip flights between China and the U.S., and even business class or first class!!

Let’s talk about people like us. On the one hand, mileage enthusiasts enjoy the fun of continuously accumulating miles, like saving money. On the other hand, they also enjoy being able to redeem a wonderful trip for themselves or their family and give themselves a chance to broaden their horizons. Once you can cover your airfare with miles, you can use the money you save to find more food and fun, and that is how miles improve the quality of travel.

Let’s look at an example. When Xiaoming came to the U.S. to study, he spent $1,000 on a ticket to fly economy from Beijing to Los Angeles and earned 5,000 UA miles. Later, he applied for the Chase UA Explorer credit card and received a 65,000-mile bonus. Then, when he next needed to go back to Beijing, he used 55,000 of the 70,000 miles he had earned to redeem a LAX-PEK return ticket. That meant the entire ticket was essentially free, earned through his own flying and credit card rewards, and he only paid $5 in taxes.

What is an airline alliance

You may have seen terms like “Star Alliance,” “oneworld,” and “SkyTeam.” So what exactly are these so-called alliances? And when people say to credit miles from one airline to another airline, what does that mean? Today, let’s briefly talk through the story.

An airline alliance is essentially the result of airlines banding together. The world’s first airline alliance was Star Alliance, founded in 1997, followed by oneworld in 1999 and SkyTeam in 2000. The creation of these alliances allows airlines to share resources, operate codeshares to expand business, and more. So what do airline alliances mean for mileage enthusiasts like us? In the early days of frequent-flyer programs, each airline’s mileage program was independent. For example, if you flew United Airlines (UA), your miles could only be credited to UA itself, you could only earn UA elite status, and UA miles could only be redeemed for UA flights. The emergence of airline alliances revitalized each airline’s mileage program and connected these miles. Let’s take UA and Air China (CA), which is also a Star Alliance member, as an example and look at how these connections actually work:

• Miles can be credited to one another. You can credit miles from Air China flights to UA, and you can also credit miles from UA flights to Air China’s PhoenixMiles program.
• Miles can be redeemed for one another. You can use UA miles to book award tickets on Air China, and you can also use Air China miles to book award tickets on UA.
• Elite status is recognized across airlines. If you are a UA Gold member, when flying Air China you can check one extra bag, check in at the business-class counter, use Air China’s lounge, and receive priority boarding and priority baggage delivery, provided that you earned your miles with UA. The reverse is also true.
• Checked bags can be tagged through to the final destination. What does that mean? For example, if I book a trip from New York on UA to Frankfurt and connect the same day to Air China to Beijing, with the two flights operated by different airlines, because UA and Air China are both in Star Alliance, you do not need to collect your checked baggage in Frankfurt and recheck it. You can ask at check-in in New York to have the bags checked all the way through to Beijing.

For beginners, the simplest approach is to identify the biggest carrier in the U.S. for each alliance and then credit all miles earned from flying other airlines to those carriers. That way, you’ll have enough miles when it’s time to redeem! For example, the big carrier in Star Alliance is UA (United), in oneworld it is AA (American Airlines), and in SkyTeam it is Delta.

For example, if you earned 70,000 AA miles through the sign-up bonus and spending on the AA credit card and want to take a trip to Japan, then by searching on the AA website, you can use 60,000 AA miles to fly business class on Japan Airlines, which is also a oneworld member like AA. Japan Airlines is far better than AA in terms of quality. The meals are delicious and refined, and the service is also first-class.

Of course, airline alliances also change over time, with members joining and leaving. The current lists are as follows:

• Main Star Alliance members: United (UA), Air China (CA), Shenzhen Airlines (ZH), Asiana Airlines (OZ), ANA, Singapore Airlines (SQ), Air Canada (AC), EVA Air (BR), Lufthansa (LH), Thai Airways (TG), Turkish Airlines (TK), and more.
• Main oneworld members: American Airlines (AA), Alaska Airlines (AS), British Airways (BA), Cathay Pacific (CX), Japan Airlines (JL), Malaysia Airlines (MH), Qantas (QF), Qatar Airways (QR), and more.
• Main SkyTeam members: Delta Air Lines (DL), Air France (AF), China Eastern Airlines (MU), China Southern Airlines (CZ), XiamenAir (MF), China Airlines (CI), Korean Air (KE), Aeroflot (SU), and more.

There are also some airlines that do not belong to the three major alliances but have partnerships with alliance members and can still issue award tickets for one another. We’ll cover those in the introductions to the individual airlines.

How to earn a large number of airline miles with credit cards

Earlier, we saw that 55,000 miles can buy a flight between China and the U.S., and 60,000 AA miles can even buy a business-class ticket from the U.S. to Japan! So how do we earn miles in large quantities? Flying alone definitely isn’t enough. For example, if you spend $1,000 flying UA, you would only earn a pitiful 5,000 miles, which is still a long way from the award tickets we want. This is where the advantage of being in the U.S. comes in! U.S. credit cards offer very generous sign-up bonuses, and you can earn a large amount of airline miles just by opening credit cards.

The main airlines in the three alliances we mentioned earlier all have co-branded credit cards, and some even have more than one! Their sign-up bonuses are also quite good. Here I recommend three cards that are suitable for beginners. Once you complete the minimum spending requirement, you can get miles and use them for China-U.S. flights. In addition, spending on credit cards can also earn a fair amount, but sign-up bonuses are still the fastest way!

In addition to applying directly for airline credit cards, there are actually quite a few credit card or hotel points that can be transferred into airline miles. For example, the well-known Chase Ultimate Rewards can transfer 1:1 to UA miles, AMEX Membership Rewards can transfer 1:1 to Delta miles, and Marriott points can transfer 3:1.25 to AA miles. By applying for hotel and bank credit cards, you can also indirectly accumulate a large number of airline miles.

Which airlines should we focus on

There are many airlines in the U.S., including the most familiar AA, UA, Delta, and Alaska Airlines, as well as low-cost carriers like Southwest, JetBlue, and Frontier. So which airlines and miles should beginners focus on?

One way is to look at the city you live in and the city you want to fly to. In general, an airport in a given city will be dominated by airlines from a certain alliance, or serve as a hub for another low-cost carrier. The way U.S. airlines operate is like this: each airline has several hubs, and the vast majority of flights depart from or arrive at those hub cities. So if you want to travel from a non-hub airport to another non-hub airport, you have to connect at a hub airport. Here is a list of the hubs for the major U.S. airlines:

• United Airlines UA: Washington (IAD), Houston (IAH), New York/Newark (EWR), Denver (DEN), Chicago (ORD), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Guam (GUM), Tokyo (NRT).
• American Airlines AA: Dallas (DFW), Philadelphia (PHL), Charlotte (CLT), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Washington (DCA), Phoenix (PHX), New York (JFK/LGA), Chicago (ORD).
• Delta DL: Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis (MSP), Cincinnati (CVG), Detroit (DTW), New York (JFK/LGA), Salt Lake City (SLC), Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), Memphis (MEM), Tokyo (NRT).
• Alaska Airlines AS: Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX), Anchorage (ANC).

So what does this have to do with choosing a mileage program? It gives you more flexibility when redeeming award tickets. For example, if you live in Dallas, then choosing the AA or BA mileage program is a great fit: use AA miles for long-haul flights and BA miles for short-haul flights. If you want to fly to Beijing, you can use AA miles to book the nonstop DFW-PEK flight. But if you use UA miles, you would need at least one connection, so it is not as convenient as booking nonstop.

But still! But still! If you are a credit card enthusiast, my advice is: get them all! With different credit cards, you can accumulate a large amount of miles from different airlines. For a basic need like round-trip China-U.S. travel, the number of connections does not need to be excessive; keeping it within 2-3 stops is still acceptable. The key is that an award ticket means free travel, so no matter which airline it is, as long as you can use it and the card has a strong sign-up bonus, just apply! Our site also has mileage guides for each airline. Get the miles first, then slowly figure out how to use them—you will have plenty of time!

• U.S. Credit Card Sign-up Bonus Rankings (Personal Cards) [Updated Monthly]

How to get airline elite status quickly

Airline elite status is still pretty valuable. Common benefits include bonus flight miles, free upgrades to premium cabins, free checked bags, priority boarding, and more.

However, airline elite status is much harder to earn than hotel elite status, because it requires real flight activity and ticket spending. For example, UA elite status is based on PQF (number of flight segments) and PQP (ticket spending). The lowest Silver status requires 12 segments and $4,000 in ticket spending, or $5,000 in ticket spending. The top 1,000 status requires 54 segments and $18,000 in spending, which works out to flying 4-5 times every month on average. Unless you travel for work full-time, it is still quite difficult to achieve.

And that is just for elite status with one airline. If you want a great travel experience across the board, it is best to hold elite status with multiple major airlines, which is even harder. In fact, besides honestly flying enough segments and meeting the spending requirements for each airline, there is a much faster way: status challenge or status match. See the article below for details; there is a certain barrier to entry.

• How to Quickly Get Airline Elite Status

Airline Mileage Program Guides Roundup

Getting Started

• “Beginner's Guide” to Airline Alliances, Miles, and Memberships

Star Alliance

• United Airlines (UA) Membership and Mileage Guide “2024 Full Update”
• Air Canada Aeroplan Mileage Redemption Guide
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Mileage Program Guide “2024 Full Update”
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Mileage Program Guide
• ANA All Nippon Airways Mileage Guide “2025 Full Update”
• Avianca LifeMiles (AV) Avianca Colombia Mileage Redemption Guide

Oneworld

• American Airlines (AA) Mileage and Membership Guide “2025 Full Update”
• Alaska Airlines Mileage and Membership Guide “2025 Full Update”
• British Airways Avios Mileage Redemption Guide “2025 Full Update”
• Cathay Pacific (CX) Miles Guide: Best Redemption + Award Seat Booking Tips
• Japan Airlines (JL) Mileage Guide: Latest Award Chart, Best Redemptions, and Award Seat Booking Tips

SkyTeam

• Delta SkyMiles Mileage and Membership Guide “2024 Full Update”
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue Program Guide “2025 Full Update”
• Virgin Atlantic (VS) Membership and Mileage Guide “2025 Full Update”

Others

• Southwest Airlines Mileage and Membership Program Guide “2025 Full Update”
• JetBlue Mileage and Membership Program Guide “2025 Update”

Beginner's Guide Series

Read these posts, and you'll be ahead of 90% of Chinese Americans in the U.S.

• How should you use U.S. credit cards? Can they save you money and even make you money?
• U.S. Credit Card Application Roadmap: From Your First Card to an Advanced Player
• The Complete Guide to U.S. Credit Scores and Credit Reports: How to Read FICO, the Three Major Credit Bureaus, Hard Pull, and Utilization?
• How do you use U.S. credit card points, airline miles, and hotel points?
• How to earn checking and savings account bonuses