Originally Posted by silverguru

My home base is Tel Aviv. I have been platinum with EL AL for 4 years, lifetime platinum with AA ,and two years with AA as executive platinum. I will start ramping up my travel again to JFK , the US west coast (reno or saltlake area ) and places like Zurich in Europe. I also invest in a gold mine near Shanghai, therefore I travel to Hong Kong ,Shanghai. I want to start banking in Singapore !
Is Star Alliance as good as OneWorld ? I had years where I bought 4 business class round the wolrd flights, and made Ex Platinum on AA with all the bonuses. Cost me $25 - $30 k. If I fly that much again ,who should I join ?
Continetal is good Tel Aviv-Newark, but how much do I need to fly to get sytemwide upgrades? If I join Air CHina for example, but use them less and their partners more, will I get system wide upgrades to use on a round the world coach trip on flghts? I have been a member of AA since 1984 ! and after 3 million miles, I am confused as to join Star Alliance at all (seems to have much more choice) as the most important thing to me is upgrades to busienss ,then ease of use of awards. American's round the world desk is excellent,easy to use,as I always change routings .