Two questions regarding this... Does anyone in the know think that AS will ever work with DL/AA/AF/BA etc to allow us to use miles to upgrade from coach to business/first. its the one thing I dont like about the AS mileage plan, I stick to it to get my MVP/G (got it last week finally for the 11th year in a row) but as a result am unable to upgrade on any international flight (Mexico omitted on purpose) which is really where you really want the nice comfy seat. I flew PDX/AMS this summer and it was nice that DL recognised my Gold status and I got to pick a first row of coach seat.

If one were to switch plans to either DL or AA so that you could fly on many AS flights and accrue miles, which one has the best plan for allowing upgrades in interenational flights at a reasonable price ?