Hello FF experts:

After several years of a job where I did not travel for business at all, I just accepted a position which will require a huge amount of travel. (Hated the old job but loved not traveling.) Based on what they told me, I estimate (conservatively) 250K miles / yr.

I have been crunching the numbers, looking at flight schedules to the most frequent places where I will be traveling, etc. But I am stumped as to which program which would be best. So I thought I would throw out some details to the experts here and get your thoughts.

Here are the relevant facts. Let me know if more are needed:

- As mentioned, I estimate 250K miles / yr., all domestic.

- I will be based in the N.E. U.S., but the travel will be mostly to the West and South. Most frequent destinations will be LAS, TPA, LAX, but also trips to ORD, MCI, MIA, ATL, DFW (among other places).

- I will be a one hour drive from a smaller N.E. airport - not a hub. I know my handle currently says PHL, which is where I am now, but I will be moving a few hours' drive from there. If I were to stay in PHL the choice would be easy: USAirways, because I value a choice of nonstop flights. The airport that will be closest to me is served by all the majors' Express carrier. The point is that if I use that airport, all schedules will be equally inconvenient. I could fly CO and connect through CLE or EWR to get anywhere; UA through IAD or ORD; DL through CVG/ATL/DTW; LCC through PHL/CLT; AA through ORD (though I hate ORD - see below - and that is the only airport AA serves nonstop from this one).

- Alternatively, I could drive two or three hours to larger cities that have hubs. Pluses: more choices of nonstop flights to where I need to go; less overall air travel time because of no need to connect. Minuses: longer drive to/from the airport; metro area road traffic congestion to fight to/from the airport; bigger chance of weather / ATC delays at those airports. If I do the longer drive, I would choose the program of the carrier based out of there.

- I HATE connecting through large, delay-prone airports like EWR, PHL, ORD. I go out of my way to avoid those types of hubs and instead would prefer CLT, CVG, DTW (maybe even IAD; I don't really know what ATL is like as a connecting hub).

- I currently have a fair chunk of miles on CO, and some on LCC, mainly through the leisure travel I have done over the past couple of years when I was not traveling much for business. Not enough to have earned status anywhere, and not enough to seriously influence my choice going forward, but maybe something to consider.

- I am not sure if I would rather redeem miles for upgrades on my business travel, or for tickets on domestic or international leisure travel, or some combination of that.

My questions:

1. Is it worth the extra drive to fly out of the hubs which offer better flight schedules but also potentially more delays? I place a high value on nonstop flights, but I find I enjoy flying out of closer, smaller, less chaotic airports. I suppose I would accumulate more miles with more connections, too.

2. How important is it to go past the 100K mile threshold? I could probably reach 100K / yr. on two airlines. At 250K miles / yr. total, is it really beneficial to put all miles with one airline vs. reaching 100K status with two?

3. (BOTTOM LINE) What airline / program would you recommend based on the above information?

Thanks so much for any insight anyone may have as I get back up to speed on all of this.