hello! im in chicago also and work at ohare! i flew for the first time in my adulthood early october. i joined both AAdvantage and Mileage Plus! i ended up flying AA and will stick with AAdvantage because i want to become elite. i chose AA for the simple fact that they had more frequencies out of ORD to places i wanted to travel. BUT, it was hard because UA, i could fly a triple 7 to lax instead of the md80! im a fan of wide bodies! so once i go elite on AA and go through all the levels, ill switch over to UA and give them a try. after that decide which airline to stick with. or just fly both and work on becoming elite on both.

you could do the same. how about flying both airlines, without joining their FF programs. then based on service, join a FF program with one of the airlines you like better!