I have already reached 1K on United this year, and have about 34K BIS miles in biz coming up on LH/TK/OZ, so would like to take this opportunity to build miles in another program and possibly transition away from UA. My plan is to (or try to, probably futilely) use my GPUs next year on around 50K of long-haul flying on UA, which will bring me close to MM status, and then reduce my crediting to UA and use the rest of my flying to earn potentially top-tier status on another Star program. I won't need to worry about Star Gold anymore.

I am considering a new program mainly for better award redemption: accrual and burn rates, ease of earning awards (always F/C on North America to Europe, Middle East, and Asia; or Europe to Asia, usually booked well in advance), and customer service. UA is decent, though I am tired of spending hours on the phone with agents who are inept in piecing together award itineraries much of the time.

Edited to add: I ironically posted this on the same day that United announced that, in the future, one would have to meet certain spend requirements on United-plated tickets to reach 1K (and other levels). So, unless I use an international address, I will never achieve this. Bye-bye United.

Does it make sense for me to switch? As I look at all of the factors, it seems that UA is still my best bet, but here goes:

(1) What is your home airport? SFO and DOH
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? UA GPU-upgradeable fares or P/Z, a fair bit of UA domestic travel (for which I almost never get a complimentary upgrade anymore), eco and P/Z on LH, and TK mostly, with a mix of other Star Alliance carriers 80% eco/20% biz
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 100-150K EQM on *A
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? UA 1K, soon MM (life *G)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Ability to redeem premium international awards on good airlines
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Middle East-U.S., Middle East-Europe/IST, intra-Europe, some Middle East-Asia, mix of various other routes globally. My goal is to never fly more than 8 hours in eco, but it has becoming increasing difficult to use GPUs on UA trans-Atlantic, so I am often just buying biz anyway, in which case I usually choose LH or TK (though the UA lie-flat seat and IFE are superior to my typical LH P/Z experience)
(7) Preferred Airlines? UA/LH/TK
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 25% work, usually LH biz from Middle East to Europe, rest pleasure

My question is, would I be better served switching from UA to another program? LH's award chart seems slightly less favorable than UA's. I often find myself buying up to Q/V/G/U/W/S on LH (e.g., DOH-FRA several times per year) to earn UA miles, though I would have to do the same in LH's program -- and UA is better in that L,T earn 100% compared to 50% on LH, though, on the other hand, E/K earn 50% on LH and zero on UA. It seems odd that LH P earns only 100% in its own program, compared with 150% on UA. Another question is earning on various basic eco fares intra-Europe (e.g., SN/LX/OS, etc.); UA seems as good or better than others in this respect.

The upshot, I think, is that my spend and earning rates would be more or less the same on LH vs. UA, but I am getting fed up with award and GPU redemption on UA such that I would be willing to pay a bit more in LH's program to actually get awards. I guess the key question is, does LH make more of its own awards available (or of any partners'?) to its own members than UA does? As much as I hate to ask about op-ups, are these routine for LH SEN members? I have no hope of earning HON, unfortunately.

I like UA's flexibility -- e.g., ability to change and cancel awards for a 1K member, one-way awards, ability for stop-overs and open jaws on awards. Does LH offer this? I know they offer one-way awards. One other consideration is the two upgrade vouchers assuming I hit SEN status -- does LH make these available at booking time and can one actually use them (unlike GPUs these days)?

I see no compelling reason to choose TK Miles & Smiles versus LH -- except that TK eco fares all seem to earn 100%, as they do on UA, compared to 50% for E/L/Q/S/T, which is what I usually take, in LH's program -- since TK's award chart is less favorable. TK also offers upgrade vouchers for Elite Plus, which is easier to earn than UA 1K or LH SEN; if anyone has experience with these (i.e., ability to confirm at booking and availability in general), then that might help, though I doubt that it would tip the scales to TK.

Is there anything else I am missing? Any other program that might suit my needs? OZ's program seems poor, due to low earning rates for LH/TK, although some aspects of the award chart are better (e.g., you can redeem SFO-ICN in F for 150K round-trip, versus 210K on LH). I have an American Express card, so I can convert to miles in some programs (e.g., SQ), but I earn most of my miles by flying.

I probably could have stated my question more simply as follows: Is there any other program that meets the following criteria: (1) comparable earn and burn rates to UA for mid-eco and low-biz classes (as LH has), (2) significantly better *A award availability than UA; (3) comparable award flexibility to UA?