If you never travel together, what benefits do you plan to get from a spousal program? I can understand a one program for each airline alliance, preferably one that you can transfer credit card mile. For us, one *A program does not accept our Chase miles so we have a second *A airline program for that purpose. We started with *A and gained status, then shifted to SkyTeam as our needs shifted and have now have status with them. For this years flights we have two elite programs to choose from. I can see spouses building status with separate programs (connected to Chase), then choosing from multiple program options for joint award trips. So are you ready to travel with the spouse?