hfly - Interesting post. I take my hat off to you being top tier in all three alliances. I figured there must be someone out there in that position - hence my original post.

I agree with you re: the overkill. There are people (myself included) who find that with both fairly frequent business and leisure travel, coupled with relatives at the four corners of the world, it pays to have at least one airline membership in each of the three major alliances.

I sometimes would love to be able to 'put all my eggs in one basket' and just have continuous top tier status with one alliance but, for example, oneworld doesn't operate into my US residence, CHS; Sky Team doesn't operate to my wife's city of origin in SE Asia, quality of service and schedule to my current work location, CAI, varies from alliance to alliance, and so on.

In the meantime I'll settle for second-tier in all three alliances!