Frequent flyers... I have a question

I'm sure some of you here are pretty frequent flyers and could maybe help me out.

I work for my family business which takes me around the world a fair amount although not nearly as much as my brother and Dad. We've just been buying our tickets normally, with the company account, and haven't really paid much attention to doing it another way where we could maybe get better benefits.

As an example of how much we fly, in the past 4 months we've done the following:

4 return tickets from Canada to Toronto to Bogota
8 return tickets from Canada to the high Arctic
1 return ticket from Canada to Australia
2 return tickets from Canada to South Africa

That is just in the last four months alone. From what I've heard, with the amount we fly, we should be Super Elite for Air Canada which gives up access to all their lounges and everything for free.

We're also considering putting all our flights through AmEx because, with the platinum cards, you get 1.5x the points towards the flight plans.

We're also considering getting a good travel agent then booking everything through them. We're not sure if that is the best way to go about it though.

What do you guys recommend?

Frequent flyer programmes can be extremely useful, if you are actually a frequent flyer. Needless to say, if you're not, they're likely a waste of money (if the programme has a membership fee).

It's also a great idea to use a credit card linked to an FF programme. I use Amex (not platinum) and direct all my rewards points to my FF programme. Typically, depending on whether a particular promotion is in place, I find if I buy a ticket using the Amex card, the rewards points that I get effectively mean that I accumulate about half as many FF points from using the card, as I get from the actual ticket/flight itself. Therefore, using your credit card rewards programme to accrue FF points is definitely worthwhile, to my mind. This is particularly so considering the other things that you typically get for credit card rewards points - I'd rather have an international flight than a toaster, foot massager or a night's accommodation at the nearest Hilton Hotel...

Using accrued FF points from flights and from the Amex rewards programme, I average one return flight from Australian to Japan about every four paying flights - quite a good rate of return.

Using one travel agent has both positive and negative aspects.
On the positive side, you can develop a really good relationship with the agent, which can result in them going the extra mile for you in terms of sourcing good flights and other travel requirements. You might also get some other corporate perks for being a good client, such as dinners at nice restaurants, free accommodation credits, flight upgrades etc.
On the negative side, you can end up paying more for your travel expenses, than you would if you shopped around. This is particularly so nowadays, as you can do a lot of research on best price airfares using the internet, so cultivating a good relationship with a travel agent is arguably now quite so beneficial as it used to be.

On a related note, if you typically fly economy/coach class and you tend to fly quite a bit, it's always worth asking for an upgrade to business class at the check-in desk. I used to be too shy, but a couple of years ago I started to ask as a matter of habit and (particularly if I am flying alone), I get upgraded almost 50% of the time. It's certainly worth asking, as you really don't have anything to lose from doing so.

Just my $.02 worth!

I belong to a number of programs, I don't see any down side to them.

keep in mind the programs don't care about what the group of you do - they are usually by person. the airline won't be in posiiton to reward you for this level of flights - it usually requires a lot more to have a corporate preffered account.

in terms of travel agents - if your flights are less than 4 legs, I would book them myself: so if you are flying bogata calgary, via new york, book it yourself. if you are flying bogata lagos, olso, then use a travel agent.