I was considering MS as well, but all miles expire after 3 years. If there were a way to earn miles from CC spend/hotels/rental cars I probably would choose them, but I doubt I would earn enough just from flights to earn the kind of redemptions I want, based on their burn rates...

For now, I'm at a complete loss as to what to do. Because I'm trying to use up my DC miles, I currently have no paid long-distance flights booked for 2012 (and only a few short flights). If I had more time to travel, I would probably fly some MRs to get *G on Aegean as a placeholder - I can't imagine the 20000 miles for *G will last for many more years. As a mostly cheap fares in NA with a few flights across an ocean and an occasional flight in a front cabin, I had been planning on switching to Aeroplan - but their new 50% miles for all cheap fares (used to be only for intraCanada and Canada-US, now it is also 50% for all international flights). I could survive their 10K metal requirement, but not with the added cost to buy up to a 100% earning fare.

For 2012, I will either start OZ or TK, or just retire from the status-chasing game (crediting my few flights to UAMP) until I have enough paid flights in a year to justify going back to our "insane hobby".