Originally Posted by onehitrenegade

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
New York... so JFK or LGA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
When paying, premium economy. (i.e. Exit Row seats.)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
<25k or 25k-50k tops

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
No

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.)
Good award redemption rates for first/business class tickets on international flights.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Domestic now... but next couple of years will be more Transatlantic or Transpacific.

(7) Preferred Airlines
I prefer to travel in nicer airlines like Singapore, Cathay, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, etc... when flying international or Jetblue/Virgin America when flying domestic. But I'm ok with flying on legacy domestic careers on domestic routes if earning those points/miles will help travel in more style on international routes on nicer airlines. Looks like I've been an idiot over the last couple of years and earned mostly Jetblue miles which are basically worthless for my goals.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
For pleasure.

Goal
Be able to book First or Business Class tickets with points/miles for International Travel. For domestic travel, quite happy with paying out of pocket for premium economy (and save those points for international). If I have to, I'm comfortable w/ paying extra (by way of topping up points or fuel surcharges or whatever fees) of upto $400-800 per First/Business Class ticket for Transpacific or Transatlantic or Europe-Asia flights. I would take these flights anyway as part of my vacation, but if I was paying for them I'd be flying premium economy. I'd like to travel in first or business class instead. Getting bumped to first in USA domestic would be a nice bonus if I can achieve that.

Also currently earning miles mostly through AMEX MR and Chase UR. But I can get Citi AA cards if necessary.

Please help me figure out which alliance is best suited for me as well as which airline FFP is best for me.