Star Alliance - *G relocated to Houston - pros and cons of switching to a US FFP?

Hi,

I have just relocated from Norway to Houston and will probably live here for at least 3 years. After those 3 years I might move back to Norway, stay in Houston or move to a new country. I would say the 3 options have about the same chance to happen. Moving to another city in the US is much less likely though, because of my line of work (oil & gas consulting).

I am currently *G with SAS Eurobonus with ~250000 points in the bank, and have enough scheduled flights in my calendar to requalify for Gold before the end of the year. This will give me *G status until August 2014. I am expecting to fly enough to requalify for EBG (50000 status miles) each year if I continue to post my miles to this program, but probably not reach 100000 status miles in any given year in the near future.

However, as I will only enjoy the generic *G benefits such as lounge access and extra luggage and not be able to use Eurobonus award flight offers and discounts etc, and I soon have a number of Eurobonus points that could be cashed out for a nice trip somewhere for me and my wife (270000 would i.e. get us both from the US to Asia/Pacific in C), I am considering changing to a US program where 50000+ status miles per year also would give *G status (with MileagePlus seemingly the obvious choice considering their network out of IAH).

So far I have identified the following pros and cons (please correct me if I'm wrong):

Pros:
- US programs have much better credit card earning possibilities than SAS Eurobonus.
- US programs don't charge fuel surcharges for partner awards like SAS does.
- I will be able to keep my *G status by flying 50000 status miles per year.
- IAH is a United hub.
- Chance of complimentary upgrades increased from 0% to slightly more than 0% (by actually having the chance to fly the airline I have status on).
- Status mileage bonuses for flying on the US program airline.

Cons:
- Starting from scratch on a new program, trying to accrue points on the US program while using the status from Eurobonus.
- Possibly a waste of time and effort if I move from Houston 3 years from now, expecting that Gold with the US programs only will be in place 1,5 years into my stay in Houston (and much less useful based in another country).
- No lounge access on domestic flights (is US<->Canada considered domestic in this case?). This should not be that big of an issue, as most of my flights will be international (what about lounge access to domestic connections to international flights?).

What to expect regarding partner award availability on US programs vs Eurobonus?

I am sure there are more pros and cons though, and I would be happy to take advice from FT experts regarding the US programs and how to weight the pros and cons against eachother.

Regards,
Magnus

Additional pro: if you use Economy (which I'm doubting in your line of work) if you choose UA MileagePlus is Economy Plus for free once you attain Silver status and can reserve farther ahead with Gold status. It's still regular economy (unlike SAS Premium) however there's a significant amount of extra legroom.

I think biggest pro to North American programs is non-expiring miles as long as your account is active. Personally in lean flying years I redeem very few miles, so nice to be able to keep them for an extended time.

Con to UA MileagePlus, need 4 segments a year on UA metal to maintain status, assume you'll use UA while in the US but after you move again perhaps not. AC program has the same problem, but requires even more segments flown on AC metal. I do not believe US has this problem, but then no UA E+ access with US status.

For redemption, US is more favorable on a purely miles spent per ticket basis and I've found availability to be basically the same, however no one way awards, UA and AC both have one way awards and US is pretty inflexible on changes.

As for credit cards, the US credit system is a little tough to crack into quickly and affinity cards (eg. mileage cards) usually require more established credit than some other cards. With only 3 years, I wouldn't count on too many miles that way... but Amex is a great option for you since you can automatically have your card from Norway transferred to the US and the US Amex Membership Rewards does give quite a few options for mile transfer.

Thx for the insight and advice.

However, the bank that is administrating Amex in Norway says that transfer of cards is impossible, so that particular move doesn't seem to be an option.