Originally Posted by TomA

I am a 1K that will be moving away from MileagePlus beginning sometime next year and am looking for recommendations about other programs. (I looked for a forum about "which program should I join?" but it doesn't exist. )

This is my situation:

• I am at 950,000 miles on UA. I'll keep crediting to MP until I reach 1,000,000 by midyear and then I'll be looking at something else.
• I will fly on to Asia UA until I use up my 4 GPU equivalents next year. I never have a problem using them up because I'm flexible.
• I'm leaning toward StarAlliance--at least for next year--because I'll be flying on UA as I burn through the upgrade points. I also have *G.
• I fly mostly to SE Asia/HK/China about 3-4 times per year. Been using W+ fares on UA and upgrading with GPUs.
• I fly around within SE Asia a LOT as I live over there half the year.
• I fly to South America from the US 1 time per year, usually in paid business class.
• I usually take another 1-2 international trips to somewhere I haven't been--that's mostly Africa/Scandinavia/Middle East/Northeast Europe. (This makes Turkish interesting due to their huge number of routes to atypical locations.)
• I usually have 2-3 domestic trips in the US.
• My main goal would be Y to J upgrades. Free flights would be second to that.
• I know that First Class Flyer has strategies to buy miles. Never much considered this before as I was focused on status, but might now.

I saw this article, which is interesting, but the focus seems to be on getting *G which I probably don't need due to the 1MM status
https://thepointsguy.com/news/star-alliance-credit-flights-elite

Would love to hear any suggestions regarding what program(s) I should switch to? Also which programs to avoid.