Hi, I'm currently *a gold with AC, and I already have gold taken care of for 2007 with a few transpacific flights already booked this year. However, I'm going to be flying with JAL a bit (mostly short haul within Japan) this year, and I want to set up an account with a Oneworld airline.

I will be an expat in Tokyo starting this October, and my primary business travel will from NRT to YYZ, JFK/LGA, HKG, PEK, SHA, LHR, BOS in roughly that order. I expect to be flying 100-150k miles in 2007, and perhaps reach 200-250k/yr in a few years As far as ibanking goes most of the tickets will J/C/Y classes I think.

Now the big question is: which alliance should I join? I have mailing addresses in Canada, USA, and Japan, and ideally i want something that complements *a well. (e.g. AC E has nice things about it, but it's reward level for NRT<->YYZ is just awful.) Should I try to comp status now, or wait till next year? I'm still in school right now so there's no chance I can keep any oneworld status I get if it expires in Feb 07.

Many thanks for helping out a poor newb :-: