Originally Posted by
mball
I have a few months to plan, but since Asiana is leaving *A, I'm trying to figure out my next move...
(1) What is your home airport? SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? R/T Economy and PE for long haul, occasionally upgrades if reasonable
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~70K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? Asiana Diamond Plus
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounges and checked bags.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? SFO-West coast, SFO-Europe once or twice a year, SFO-Asia once a year usually
(7) Preferred Airlines? I guess UA by default. But LX and LH when going to Europe and BR+SQ for Asia.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 50/50, sadly work doesn't pay for J.
I'm honestly wondering whether I should go for straight UA Gold. I'm not sure I'd hit 10K PQP though. Maybe with a credit card though...
Or the long game, 15-20 years I'd hit 1MM on UA! hahaha.
Ideally, I'd love to do a status challenge. (Or i try to stick it with SkyTeam next year, but I don't think that makes too much sense for SFO.)
The long game with can actually be your advantage if you can somehow make it to get Million Miler status with UA, while meeting the annual 10K PQP (which will most likely rise at some point). Within *A, TK would be my recommendation as it is a milage based program (depending on fare class of course), and you seem to really want *G benefits. With 70K annually, you should easily requalify for *G as their program requires 40K to qualify for their Elite status in the first year and then 60K in the subsequent two-year requalification period. Beware that TK is not always known for great customer service, but I haven't had too many issues myself. Please check out the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles thread for more info, and good luck!