Originally Posted by 2tall4economy

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) "Home" as it were, is DTW (Detroit) and/or DFW. Usually DTW
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Business class. Not sure what letter they are as it changes.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) 50k or so
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) Singapore Elite Gold / PPS, Delta Elite Silver, AA 16k miles (no status)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.) Free flights from my work location to my "home"
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) From Shanghai to AU/UK/CH/US/BR
(7) Preferred Airline Singapore Airlines I suppose
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Primarily work.



I'm a US employee of a global company currently based in Shanghai, CN. Once each year, my company gives me a fixed sum for me and my family to fly back to the US (my parents are by DTW, my wife's parents are by DFW). What I'm trying to do is put all my work miles to a frequent flyer program and use the miles to fly home so I can keep the fixed sum as income.

Frankly, I don't care what alliance I use as I have some miles with all of them (though least with oneworld).

The reason I'm complicated is that I'm only here in Shanghai for another year or so and then they'll send me packing to some other country (most likely Brazil, Australia, Russia or Korea). I won't know where I'm going until just before they send me.

Thus I'm looking for the best airline program which can go pretty much anywhere.

In theory, I'd prefer Delta since it's a DTW hub, but sky team doesn't have asian airlines that I like (in my experience, if an airline has "China" in the title, STAY AWAY). So, my second thought was Singapore, but it looks like Singapore just doesn't have the flexibility for a China -> Detroit flight (other than with an insane amount of miles); only United / Conti has multiple offerings (along with Delta). Also looks like United / Conti has the widest range so that I can be somewhat assured of being able to use the miles even when the company relocates me.

Problem with them though, of course, is that the merger might mean I lose or have less optimal miles, and their practice of blocking out available "saver" seats means I might lose out on the entire reason I'd want to use them.

Would appreciate any insight. I'm about to get on board for another 8,000 mile trip next week and would like it to start counting toward my "best option" plan.

Thanks!