just want to get some comments/advice from all of you here while I am deciding on my "frequent flying strategy for 2001"...

I have been a UA Premier Executive (requiring 50k+ miles a year) for a few years now...and a CX MPO Gold (requiring 60+ miles a year) for a couple of years now too...both middle tier...now thinking whether I should try to renew my MPO Gold or not...

this year, I probably would want to go for a top-tier with an airline, given all the special perks/upgrades and treatments I've heard, given to UA 1K, CX Diamond, or AA EXP...e.g. UA 1K get 6 one-way systemwide upgrades while AA EXP get 4 VIP2 upgrades (good for roundtrips)...while middle tiers get none of this...and, AA EXP gets me into the first-class section of The Wing in HKG, which as a Gold MPO I have never had a chance to go to (I was very lucky to have got quite a few operational upgrades from J to F on CX, short regional routes, but those don't get me into the F lounge)...

given my current estimate of business and leisure travel in the next year or two...it would again be mostly on CX (not a surprise since I am based in HKG)...and I usually do at least a couple of transpacific trips to US a year (or even through US to Europe, for mileage runs)...so the 4-segment minimum on AA should not be a problem if I choose to get AA status...

my thinking is...it's not hard for me to do a mileage run or two, in addition to the planned travel, to get 100k Q-miles on AA (for EXP) or even 120k Club Miles on CX (so CX Diamond is ~20% more travel than AA EXP, not talking about the detailed 50% mileage credit etc)...

however, in the process...I could have racked up some other 200k bonus miles with AAdvantage (100% as PLT/EXP, on all oneworld flights, status either through challenge or comp; another 100% if I return all the complimentary domestic upgrades, an unpublished perk)...but with CX, 120K Club miles mean exactly 120K Asia Miles only...and in many cases Asia Miles awards are a bit more expensive than AAdvantage awards (and also all the great promotions, either earning or using miles, with AAdvantage members flying CX)...

is it worth it getting only 120K award miles with Asia Miles (vs 360K potential award miles with AAdvantage)...just because CX Diamond would get better treatment on CX flights ?? or AA EXP, as oneworld Emerald, would do me good enough on CX flights ?? again, most of my travel, say 75% of the flights, would be on CX...

trying to get UA 1K probably don't make much sense, given that I do many CX flights a year, right ?? keep in mind that I do need to do at least a couple of mileage runs on my own to get this...and, I probably still want to maintain a certain MPO level, say at least Silver...

these are just my random thoughts at the moment...any suggestions ?? does it make sense to go for one top tier rather than keeping two middle-tier memberships, which I have been doing for the last couple of years ?? thanks !!