Originally Posted by
ROAPres82
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!
Required amount of miles for TK M&S Elite status renewal is 37.500 miles in two years. Alternatively if you make 25K in the first year of requalification period you're already good.
I agree M&S is a nice program but for someone living in the US spending the miles might be a bit hard.
Plus not all of those UA and LH/LX flights will earn you miles at 100% rate. For the European flights you can consider TK.
Like the poster above, I also recommend checking the program details like earning charts from other *A carriers.