So, I recently switched jobs in my company & will be traveling next year - a lot. In the next 3 weeks, I've got 3 trips & I'm going to be averaging about a trip a week (some weeks I may hit 2 locations in one trip) for the next two years. I am DC based (can fly out of either IAD or DCA - avoiding BWI like the plague though) and my company's preferred carriers are AA/UA/DL & BA - however, all my flights will be domestic, so the BA factor doesn't matter to me.

I've already got NW Plat earned for next year, US Silver (and may hit gold, but not too concerned about it) earned for next year, and was comped to UA PremEx (unsolicited comp - got a letter in the mail from them 3 weeks ago welcoming me to PremEx due to my position within my company - but I think that was accidental - but that's another story for another time). My current levels of status with all airline, rental car, and hotels have all been due to personal travel. With my job change, I'm going to have less opportunity for personal travel (I take a lot of vacations - and with the new job, it'll be harder to take those same types of vacations).

So, for business travel, I'm supposed to book directly with Cliqbook (Carlson Wagonlit) & it recommends AA/UA/DL flights in order of pricing. The system will allow me to pick any carrier I want & will log my choices that are not within the company travel policy. The things that will trigger it logging my choices are:

1) Flying a non-preferred carrier
2) Choosing a fare that's more than $125 than the least logical fare

I am allowed to pick any carrier I want - I am asked for a reason to back it up though. Reasons include things such as flight schedules, airport choice, lower price, flight connections, etc - so there is a little wiggle room - Also, I can sort of manipulate the system to an extent with my queries by doing queries on ITA and finding out when NW (my preferred carrier since I get upgraded on them & I have a lot of miles on them) is priced the best & then using those parameters on Cliqbook so those flights come up as logical exceptions. However, for all the recent searches I've done, AA & UA seem to be coming up with the best prices. I don't know what the reprecussions are if I don't follow travel policies, but I imagine that initially it will just be a stern talking too - my trips aren't paid for by my department - I expense them to another department, so I've never even met the guy that approves my expense reports. I usually will have less than a 2-week booking window for business flights.

I enjoy getting the elite upgrades on NW & DL won't comp me to plat based on my NW status. In DC, there are so many UA upper level elites that I'm not sure that I'll ever get upgraded & they also fly a lot of RJs out of here. Although, E+ isn't really a bad way to fly at all. As for AA, I literally know nothing about their program & am not sure how their UG system even works. I could continue to fly on UA or DL & earn on US/NW, but I'll pretty much never be up front.

So, that makes me think I should switch - I doubt I'll fly more than 50-75K as all my flights are domestics (about 40% east coast, 30% midcons, & 30% transcons) for business & probably not more than 25K for personal next year given my job change. In theory, I could attempt to earn on segments too - If I fly AA, then every trip will be about 4 segments - if I fly UA, then it'll be between 2-4 segments, and if I break policy & continue to try to force NW, it'd be 4 segments as well. So, that's an option.

Any suggestions as to what my best steps would be for a DC based business traveler - I know that UA's the logical choice since I'm already a PremEx through 2007 & they've got a strong program - however, I feel hesitant because I used to be a Premier & felt that was nothing special (25% mileage bonus? Give me a break - everyone else is 50%!) about it & that since there were so many DC based elites, that the upgrades never came & the only benefit was E+ access, which they sell now, so its not even that great of a benefit. I will say though, that UA's got the best redemptions though for premium cabin int'l travel - between them & NW anyways...not sure about AA.

Thanks!