Hello all, newly assigned traveling consultant here. I've had the luck to be local in NYC for the past 4 years, but I'm now scheduled to be staffed down in Houston for the next 14 months.

I've had frequent flier programs all my life, but never really utilized them before as my travel was inconsistent. Now I'm looking for the best way to really maximize this constant travel and make use of the 5 weeks of vacation time I rarely do anything fun with.

Quick overview,

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: Award redemption (i.e. fly free for personal flights) and upgrades.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: On average, above 25k. This year will likely be closer to 150,000 if I'm flying to Houston every week. Number of flights on average is around 20 a year, before weekly travel.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: Economy, but would buy business if upgrades were available for relatively the same price.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travel for both work and pleasure. For work, able to choose airline and class if required economy/coach when domestic.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: Domestic.

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: NYC, in order of preference: LGA, JFK, HPN, EWR, SWF

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: No status achieved. About 10,000 on Delta; 3,000 on American; and 55,000 on Jetblue.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: Jetblue was preferred for a long time due to easy JFK access and need to travel to FLL and Plattsburgh for family. JB is moving down the list, though, with loss of customer service and Mosaic being, well, just dumb. Delta is probably my preferred of the nationals, then American, than United.

I know United is the easy answer here, given their Hub in Houston, but I'm looking for alternatives and other ideas as I'm really just not a huge fan of them. I'm open to being converted, though.

Thanks!