Thanks.

I posted in that thread,, will hopefully get some informative responses.

To answer your questions, I travel mostly for work, but they have no preferred airlines, just following a "lowest logical fare" policy.

For ST I use KLM, but I rarely fly ST so it is a moot point.
For OW I use Qantas and they seem fine.

The thread on expiring miles was not very informative, but I googled expiring Star Alliance programs and there were a few exceptions:

Aegean, Air Canada, Avianca, United Milage Plan.

Would I be better off on one of these programs even though I will never fly these airlines?