Originally Posted by jackal

A couple quick observations:

-If you think you'll end up (due to fares/schedule availability/etc.) flying a mix of AS, DL, and AA out of PDX, go for AS. It's a good program, miles can be used in a variety of ways, and AS is generally more customer-friendly than other airlines. If you can get status on AS before you move, then after you move (and if you find AS doesn't work as well for you in your new home), you may be able to get a status match to an equivalent status level on another carrier.
-Why would you say you'd pick DL if you move to DEN or SFO? Those are both UA hubs. Not that it's necessary to be a frequent flyer with the airline that owns a particular hub, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that those cities are UA hubs, not DL hubs. In NYC, UA has EWR as its hub while DL has JFK as its hub. Where you live in NYC can pretty strongly affect which airport you end up flying out of.
-For flying to small airports like ALB and BTV, it really doesn't matter who you pick. You're going to end up connecting at least one time to get there. Whether that's PDX-IAD-ALB on UA or PDX-DTW-ALB on DL or PDX-PHL-ALB on US, it's all kind of the same. In other words, these kind of flights (from one outstation to another outstation) really don't affect your comparison that much.