Originally Posted by
wco81
I checked out Alaska and I see a lot of BA awards, with fuel surcharges and the worst J product going currently.
OK, well, there are two different concepts at play here.
AFAIK, no US airline has -- yet -- gone to fully dynamic partner awards. I think that they all will, but so far they have not. That part of your question, then, boils down to "which program has partners that are most likely to release award space," and I'd answer "none," but probably give UA the edge because of (a) no fuel surcharges and (b) *A has a number of decent airlines. (Of course, that partly depends upon where you want to fly).
The second half of the equation is "which airline is giving me the most miles for my money when I fly them," and for most west-coast passengers that answer is going to be AS. However, as you note, their selection of partners is limited by the fact that they're not in an alliance.
Incidentally, this is why this thread has over 900 responses: there isn't an easy answer, and the fully-dynamic system is a big devaluation.