pgupta ~ Analyzing travel patterns is not a valid method of determining the best program I think. As other people have mentioned, many travellers do not really have much of a choice in airlines.

For instance, I live in New Orleans. Although no one has a hub here, Delta has at least twice as many seats available out of here as any other single airline and the most flights overall (in other words, not only do they have more flights, they operate bigger airplanes than anyone else, 757's and 767's, and I've even seen an L-1011 on one occassion where a flight was cancelled). Also, Delta is the only airline in New Orleans with a club, which is important to me because I'm always too careful and arrive at the airport 90 minutes or so early typically.

Now, given that I took about 20 trips last year and live in New Orleans, what would my travel patterns show? That I like Delta a lot ...

Do I like Delta a lot? Not necessarily ...

I think I'd prefer to use United as my primary carrier, but they just don't offer the schedules I need, the destinations I need (Huntsville, AL), or the lowest prices to cities I travel to a lot (cities in the Southeast for instance).

Now, since I'm stuck with Delta at least part of the time, guess which airline I made my primary carrier? Delta, because I don't have the luxury of flying enough to make elite in multiple airlines, so I'd rather make elite in at least one to make my travel more comfortable and rewarding.