I apologize if similar questions have been raised and addressed elsewhere: I couldn't see to find those.

I am UA 1K/GS and am planning to keep that status for the indefinite future. I am considering adding another FF program, ideally something not in *A, so as to add more flexibility on award ticket choices. My own travel is mostly for business, to Europe and Asia. I expect to fly 100K+ elite qualifying miles under the new program, so I am looking for the highest status on the new program.

I am based in BOS. My considerations are as followed:

- I mostly use miles for award tickets for family vacations to Europe/Asia over the summer and South America over the winter. I find that UA saver award choices for European destinations are often limited. It looks to me that AA, DL and CO have more destinations in Europe/South America, and thus might compliment UA in award choices.

- Since my travel schedule often changes at the last minute, I typically purchase refundable tickets for domestic travels. This gives me complimentary upgrades to first class on UA (and for GS those UGs mostly clear). I am allowed to purchase business class for international travel. I am budget traveller for family vacation travels, so would typically go for the lowest fares. I would like to be able to use upgrade certificates to upgrade family on those tickets.

- I've so far concentrated on flying UA, with about 350K life time miles under my belt. I want to keep flying UA to achieve the million miler status, for a guaranteed 1P on UA. So one option is to concentrate on UA for the next few years, before adding another FF program. But UA don't really reward people beyond achieving the 1K/GS status, so for example if maximizing the number of upgrade certificate is the goal of the game, one would seem better off spreading a 250K EQM over the year into UA and AA (150K UA, 100K AA), to get 8 UA and 8 AA SWUs, rather than concentrating on UA to get 14 UA SWUs.

- On a few recent family vacations we flew DL (to Europe and the West Coast) becasue they have very reasonable prices. We received at best mediocore treatments (compared to the treatment by UA). We are all GM on DL. I was wondering whether it might have helped if I were an elite member such as a PM. Also, for the few domestic business trips where I have to fly AA/DL/CO because of better routing (I prefer the shortest flights), I guess having elite status there might have helped putting me on the front of the airplane.

Has anyone had similar experience? Your suggestions would be highly appreciated!