Hi OP,

I was in your shoes a few years ago, coming from SIN and was considering the same thing. I think it also depends on your end goal. I definitely gave up on pursuing SQ status knowing that I'll be doing a bit of travelling in the US and that I wanted to have my miles go towards a lifetime status so i initially chose asiana but moved to United after the proposed Asiana merger. SQ status is valuable, but honestly negligible if you're not PPS. With United at least if you reach certain levels, you can get free domestic seat selection, or if you reach premier plat, at least have some plus points to go towards upgrades. If you have IRROPS in the US, the status is more valuable there too.

With redemptions, like what the others shared, if you go into credit cards, you can redeem them on SQ anyway. United miles are not as valuable, but unless you're booking a lot of premium cabins, the miles you collect within each individual program is negligible.

If you want to shoot me a DM, I would be more than happy to share more of how my experience was like and how I built credit etc. to the various programs I'm in now. All the best