It is a great thread!

I enrolled in the AA challenge and got to platinum, then in the last 3 months of '99 I flew 52,000 base miles so I'm platinum for 2000 anyway. I got comped to US Preferred Plus. Then I decided to switch my AA businss to UA because I can get a lot more direct fights and the time is more important than the money. So UA comped me to PE.

So my plan is to fly US on short segments (DCA-LGA, DCA-BOS) and UA on all other segments. I should requal for PP on US next year, and either PE or 1K on UA. I figure I'll travel about 100K miles on UA and 60 segments on US so that is about right. US treats me very nicely but they don't have the schedule outside of the Eastern corridor, so that is where UA comes in.

I have done a lot of stays in Crowne Plaza and Marriott, with a few in Hyatt. I like Crowne Plaza a lot, but they are part of Holiday Inn and I don't like Holiday Inn much. I do like Marriott. They upgrade me a bit and I find their service very good. Crowne Plaza treats me the best but they are not in enough places.