Whats the "right" alliance & airline for me
So I've been reading heavily into the insightful threads all over the forums, but still need some suggestions specific to my travels.
My background info:
1) Based in LA, fly almost exclusively out of LAX (have occasionally used Burbank for special deals and what not). I'm not willing to drive down to the OC or other airports which are further away.
2) My business travel consists of bi-weekly flights from LAX to OAK. I've been a member of Southwest RR for a number of years for this and thats not going to change much.
3) I would say the rest of my 'personal' travel consists of 1 or 2 trips per year when I get some vacation time. Almost always within the 50 States. Future places I want to visit, in no particular order, in the next few years: Savannah, Charleston, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Denver, Hawaii, Washington DC.
4) Currently, I dont do much international travel, but it would be nice to have that option & flexibility in the future, particularly South America (Brazil, Argentina, etc).
5) Service to Israel would be nice if possible
6) Service to Africa/Asia is least-important
7) I have an AMEX Premier Gold card, which I put 95% of my expenses on... roughly $50k per year. The only reasons I have this card is that (a) my employer will pay for the annual fee even though its a personal card for myself, (b) the 3x points for flights is nice since I do the travel between LAX/OAK.
My "priority" list is in the following order
1) Availability of flights
2) Best price
3) Rewards and upgrades earned
4) Special/fast check in or other services
I dont care much for airport lounge quality as I dont hang around there much.
So my questions are:
1) What alliance (and of course specifically what airline) should I consider joining?
2) Should I get a CC with that airline, or continue to put my charges on the AMEX Gold?