WIRunner you definately make valid arguments. I did in fact speculate and lost my bet. Last year I flew about 78K on Continental and 57K on United which is why I have different status in the two programs. All of those miles were flown before Continental joined *A. In the current year I have just over 25K in each program (about 60K combined - not that it matters). I should have used one program just to be sure I qualified for the highest status in 2011 but I did not.