Originally Posted by
PigsCanFly
That gives me a lot to mull over. I like your thinking but not sure if I want to depend on those UK flights with BA or not. I need to further research into OneWorld (and potentially Skyteam and United too) to understand how each status works. I've never really dived into that side of things!
The concerns I would have about going with BA (or IB, which does not require any IB flights to attain status) and acquiring Avios are:
1. You are located in a non-hub airport; both BA and IB charge extra for connections on award redemptions.
2. Although there have been a couple of reports to the contrary, Avios should only be redeemable on AA when AA has "MileSAAver" awards available. These days, a lot of AA awards are "Web Specials," which sometimes cost fewer miles than MileSAAvers, but are not available for redemption by partner programs.
UA would probably be my second choice after AA if based in SRQ with your expected flying patterns.
The biggest difference now between AA's FFP and DL's and UA's when it comes to attaining status is that with AA's Loyalty Points scheme, lots of activities other than flying count towards status, so you might be able to attain a higher level of status -- or at least reach first-level status more quickly -- with AA than with the other two.