I, personally, always go to the airline ('my' LH downtown Zurich 'angel'). Even if I would miss some rebate, I win on upgrade 'influence' (on LH and UA segments) and I did profit in the past also, when 'things' didn't go 'smoth' (reimbursement of stolen items out of checked and first misguided luggage on Ansett in SYD; tf calls to book tickets a day before price-increases: I did profit twice for rtw-tickets in the last 24 months from this).