Originally Posted by John Aldeborgh

Honestly, once I hit lifetime GS, which has been kind of an emotional goal, I will be able to fly on the Star Alliance for the long haul legs most of the time while still getting all the GS benefits. Most of the inter-Asia and inter-Europe is already done by local carriers today anyway. The service and food are almost always superior to United so unless I'm upgraded there will be little reason to fly United.