Hi,

I have just relocated from Norway to Houston and will probably live here for at least 3 years. After those 3 years I might move back to Norway, stay in Houston or move to a new country. I would say the 3 options have about the same chance to happen. Moving to another city in the US is much less likely though, because of my line of work (oil & gas consulting).

I am currently *G with SAS Eurobonus with ~250000 points in the bank, and have enough scheduled flights in my calendar to requalify for Gold before the end of the year. This will give me *G status until August 2014. I am expecting to fly enough to requalify for EBG (50000 status miles) each year if I continue to post my miles to this program, but probably not reach 100000 status miles in any given year in the near future.

However, as I will only enjoy the generic *G benefits such as lounge access and extra luggage and not be able to use Eurobonus award flight offers and discounts etc, and I soon have a number of Eurobonus points that could be cashed out for a nice trip somewhere for me and my wife (270000 would i.e. get us both from the US to Asia/Pacific in C), I am considering changing to a US program where 50000+ status miles per year also would give *G status (with MileagePlus seemingly the obvious choice considering their network out of IAH).

So far I have identified the following pros and cons (please correct me if I'm wrong):

Pros:
- US programs have much better credit card earning possibilities than SAS Eurobonus.
- US programs don't charge fuel surcharges for partner awards like SAS does.
- I will be able to keep my *G status by flying 50000 status miles per year.
- IAH is a United hub.
- Chance of complimentary upgrades increased from 0% to slightly more than 0% (by actually having the chance to fly the airline I have status on).
- Status mileage bonuses for flying on the US program airline.

Cons:
- Starting from scratch on a new program, trying to accrue points on the US program while using the status from Eurobonus.
- Possibly a waste of time and effort if I move from Houston 3 years from now, expecting that Gold with the US programs only will be in place 1,5 years into my stay in Houston (and much less useful based in another country).
- No lounge access on domestic flights (is US<->Canada considered domestic in this case?). This should not be that big of an issue, as most of my flights will be international (what about lounge access to domestic connections to international flights?).

What to expect regarding partner award availability on US programs vs Eurobonus?

I am sure there are more pros and cons though, and I would be happy to take advice from FT experts regarding the US programs and how to weight the pros and cons against eachother.

Regards,
Magnus