If your intention is to find the program that would be easiest for you to earn status, don't focus solely on BIS miles needed. Be sure to account for alternative EQM earning opportunities. For example, Delta and US Air offer the ability to earn status throuh multiple card-holderships alone. US Air has offered some aggressive promotions to use their partners and have purchases and other activities count towards your EQM total. American counts miles earned by any means towards "Lifetime Status", whereby earning a million or more miles will enable you to have automatically renewing status every year for the life of the program. Some airlines offer shortcuts to status if you can meet their challenge of a certain number of BIS miles in a limited period. The list goes on.