US Airways and United recently made a frequent flyer alliance so that one can earn miles and take award travel on either of them, although one can't pool the miles from the two programs. Both airlines have filed for bankruptcy; going on the presumption that both will stay in business, I was planning to reach the next award level on US, then earn miles on United when I fly either. I was thinking US was worse off and I'd like to cash out with them soon; also, I sometimes fly Air Canada, which gives miles (for now) on United but not US. The next US award level would be to the Caribbean, where I haven't given much thought to going. From what I'm hearing now, I may be better off getting rid of my United miles and holding the US miles. I have just over 10,000 United miles, not enough for an award, but one option is to convert them to Hilton Hhonors points. It appears that 10,000 United miles can be converted to 20,000 Hhonors points. So Mary, for instance, could get 80,000 points. Their award scale varies depending whether you want a stay at an out-of-the-way Hampton Inn or the top Hilton, but you could get a few hotel nights with these points. These can in turn get converted to miles with other airlines, but at a big loss. Anyway, it seems like a good option for converting United miles for people who can't fly soon. For more information (I have no vested interest, of course) see .

So my inclination is to convert my United miles this way and hold onto my US miles, although I might be denying myself a Caribbean trip; it would be interesting to hear any comments on this approach.

Andrew Missouri