I've been Premier Gold on UA for years (and Gold on DL before that), looking to change.

Most of my flying is TATL out of SFO.

Obviously AS partners AF/KLM and DL have TATL options.

How viable is it to earn and maintain (assuming I can get a status match) MVP Gold predominantly on partners, getting the bulk of the qualifying miles on TATL flights out of SFO and then redeeming awards mostly for TATL flights on the partners?

I've heard that if you don't fly any AS flights, either along the West Coast or other parts of the West or to Hawaii, it doesn't make sense to join Mileage Plan.


Are there other AS Mileage Plan elites doing something similar, flying mostly on partners to achieve status and redeem on partners, with minimal flights on AS itself?

Of course, the way the industry is going, AS could impose revenue requirements, requiring booking through AS, even for partners, which could result in more expensive tickets. That is what UA has done of course.

But maybe the other side of the coin is that the partners fly complementary routes, not the same routes, as is the case with UA and many *A partners, which gives them an incentive to force its elites on its own flights. So AS may not be as hostile to the use of partners to earn status, at least for now.