FlyerChrisK, I go to London a fair bit and really like the day flights from BOS-LHR which are only on OneWorld. I also fly to Toronto, Newark, and sometimes Houston, which are really Star Alliance (with occasional trips to Basle, Zurich and Munich that are typically best done on Star Alliance and to Singapore which is convenient on SQ). Plus trips to lots of random places depending upon the client and the year (Mexico City, Atlanta, Dubai, Hyderabad, Sydney, ...).

For the last ten years, I've been Gold on BA but don't think the change to Avios is good for Boston-based flyers and will probably switch my FF allegiance back to AA (and want to be Emerald and not Plat). This past year I was also Star Gold on AC, but might not hit that without some help this upcoming year. So, it's not easy to consolidate on one alliance.

I'm under the general impression that United does not treat its elites particularly well (relative to BA, for example) unless they are GS. Is Continental better? If so, do we have any reason to believe the Continental treatment will survive the consolidation?