I'm longstanding *G on US out of London and am considering my options for next year. I originally started flying US because they flew to PHL, had laptop power outlets at every seat incl economy, and have generous enough carry-on baggage rules that I never have to check anything. #1 and #3 still apply. But the airline has gone way downhill, as everyone knows, and although they haven't taken the power outlets off the intl Airbuses (unlike the domestic Airbuses), they fly Boeings some of the time that have no such facilities. I have 138,000 FF miles I can't use for upgrades because I never buy tickets above the $ limit required; the only benefit to being gold is using the club (now gone from LGW), automatic domestic upgrades (but I fly US domestic very little), preferred seating (fast airport exit), and getting through checkin and boarding faster. I'm tired of the crap food, beancounting policies such as inadequate fuel that 2x this year had us diverted to gas up so we could hold at PHL and delayed 4 hrs each time.

I fly just about exactly 50k/yr, mostly London-PHL or London-SFO or LAX. So far planned but not booked for 2009, RT to ORD, SFO, IAD (or PHL).

Which FF program would you switch to, and why? If I'm going to do it, now is the time.

wg