I Should Have Signed Up For ANA's vs United's Loyalty Program, huh?
Hi All, I'm on a multi-year expat assignment in Japan and travel from HND/NRT - SHA/PVG and PEK monthly in economy, occasionally HND/NRT - GMP/ICN in economy, and to the US in business 2x per year. I joined United's MileagePlus program last year, I'm currently Platinum and am on track to make 1K by October. This past Sunday flying HND-SHA on ANA it donned on me that I'll never fully realize many of the benefits that ANA Diamond's receive at HND and NRT; that the highest level of benefits I'll receive the vast majority of the time is limited to those of Star Alliance Gold. It specifically occurred to me after I was rejected when trying to go through the much shorter "elites" security line as United Platinum flying ANA. I was informed you have to be flying the same metal as your loyalty program, which for me is only ~2x per year. At this point it seems to me that because I'm so far in with United's program I might as well stick it out and be content with Star Alliance Gold 90% of the time I fly. Any thoughts on this? Is there something I'm overlooking that would make starting over with ANA worth it? I'll be in Japan till at least early 2021, possibly until early 2023.