i have flown us airways almost exclusively for the last 5 years, currently fly about 150,000 miles annually (all leisure, and on my own dime), and have been chairman's preferred with them for the last two or three years. i was very supportive and continued to fly them during their recent sojourn through ch 11, but sadly, i have recently come to the conclusion that us airways is now probably on its deathbed. it may take another 18-24 months, but unless something miraculous occurs, i'll bet we're without us airways before too long. so i need to learn about other programs and hopefully status-match somewhere else. the problem is that although i consider myself an expert about us airways' dividend miles program, i know virtually nothing about other airlines' progrmas. i know that some of them are now not awarding miles (or are awarding fractions of total miles flown) on flights in certain fare classes, and i have read that some (most?) programs don't status-match to their top tiers.

i have searched the ft database, hoping to find a concise comparison of the different programs' policies/strengths/weaknesses, but most of what i could find is incomplete or obsolete or both. if anyone knows a lot about the different programs and would be willing to spoonfeed me with a quick-and-dirty summary of how they compare to each other, i'd really appreciate it. thanks.

-- he who slacks.