Thank you, that was extremely helpful. I live in Houston so you're ight I don't have access to Delta International flights and would certainly need to connect in Atlanta, Detroit or MSP (six connections from IAH and SEA is not one of them). I've got AF, KLM and Korean all direct from Houston. The situation though is not too different from AA in that AA has not international flights from IAH and I would need to connect through a hub. However, I can connect through DFW, PHL, MIA, LAX, ORD, CLT and PDX. From a Flying Blue stand point, I was think along the lines of using points for US domestic travel and international upgrades figuring the short haul costs would be better through FB. You make some excellent points as it relates to surcharges.

AA r cent,y instituted something what while initially I thought was going to be a problem turns out to benefit me a bit more - they've incorporated a rolling EQD analysis to further determine upgrades. If you fly a lot of AA metal with high rolling EQD's over a twelve month period, you should have materiallymhighernupgrade ability.

I think my choice will be looking at Diamond Medallion or AA EXP. Really good analysis. Thank you so much.