I walked away from AA went they went revenue based. Just doesn't work as a leisure flyer as there are so few miles involved. If you're flying on a lot of advance purchase or leisure fares on transcons from SFO, you really can't overlook Alaska. They have a lounge at JFK (
PHOTOS) and a new one under construction as SFO that will open end of year. If you have Priority Pass, there are two restaurants in the UA terminal (when I take 9am flights I usually come down early for breakfast over there - does involve clearing another round of security but generally pretty quick with precheck).
I've been at Alaska for 3 years. Flew them this weekend RT SFO-JFK and cleared two more upgrades as a 75K elite flyer. Running 96% this year (25 of 26 transcons) with upgrades and last year was at 97%. Get the sense SFO does not have a lot of top tier elites so upgrade chances on Alaska transcons may be a lot better from here than up in Seattle. Brought in over 11,000 miles on a $237 RT fare - even an Alaska Gold/40K flyer would bring in 10,000 miles. Can't do that at AA or UA. There are two ways to qualify for status, either solely on Alaska or with Alaska/partners combined.
ELITE STATUS on ALASKA
Alaska has announced they'll be joining One World by summer of next year which would give you additional Qantas benefits to NZ (already have QF lounge access at the top two Alaska tiers). We do have nonstop QF flights now from SFO to SYD, MEL and BNE and onward NZ connections with those. Was just in NZ in November via Australia (should note Alaska award tickets would allow a free stopover in Australia before continuing to NZ - AA tix don't allow that).
Another consideration: award charts. Australia/NZ in business on an Alaska award is 55K. AA will charge 70K and UA 80K. An Alaska award in first class would require routing via an A380 airport (LAX, DFW) to SYD/MEL and it's 70K. AA and UA can't touch that price.