I am brand new to the forum and just joined to get some advice.

My wife and I will soon be moving to Oakland. We currently live in Utah and are both loyal to Delta.

Historically, I've flown somewhere between 15-25 segments a year, which is not enough that I've achieved any status. I anticipate that this rate of travel will continue for the next couple years, but after that it will probably jump to the 30-50 segments/year range.

Since Delta's options out of OAK and SFO are basically only to hubs, I anticipate that I'll be wanting to switch to United, Alaska, or Southwest as my dominant carrier. In a year of slightly-above-average flying I could qualify for the first elite tier in one of the programs, but I'm ultimately just trying to make sure all my miles are accruing to the same place so that they build up enough to actually go somewhere with them.

The only destinations I anticipate needing to travel frequently are SLC and Washington, DC. I have a preference for landing at DCA rather than IAD or BWI. I will be doing a fair bit of travelling aside but to random locations.

I pay for my own flights roughly 50% of the time, so I am basically looking to maximize the amount of locations I can easily travel to for a reasonable price, with a specific emphasis on DC and SLC. I can fly out of either OAK or SFO relatively painlessly, with OAK being slightly better.

If it's helpful, I generally travel with a carry-on but without a checked bag in economy.

I know there's no "correct" answer to this question, but anything you think I should consider would be useful. I haven't flown UA, AS, or WN since I was a child.