Maximizing Free Airline Tickets

[Twotter76]

Once the miles have been deposited into your account they will not change them (I tried several times with no luck) and you cannot combine them, even on partner airlines. You CAN use UAL miles to get a ticket on USAir but you have to have the required amount of UAL miles for the ticket. Looks at each alliance and see which airline suits you best then make sure that when you check in that miles are going to the correct account.

 

[jtf]

I suggest putting all your United and USAir into USAir until you have 25K and then put both into United the rest of the time to pump it up. Choose one of the 3 main Skyteam carriers to put all your Skyteam miles into also since if you concentrate into one you will achieve preffered status much quicker and get the mileage bonus faster.

 

[Daytonaflyer]

Actually, you can sign up at Points.com and enroll all of your airline mileage programs, some of them will allow you to swap miles to another airline's program. You can also swap them for other things like gift certificates.
Delta and American do not allow you to swap miles out of their accounts, but you can swap miles into their accounts.
I think most of the other major airlines participate in their program with the exception of United Airlines. Unfortunately you tend to take a pretty big loss when you swap miles using Points.com, but if you really need to, at least the option is there.