I agree. I guess the only immediate factor weighing more in favor of UA and Star Alliance for you would be that it has a much better connections to Asia and (I believe) it has better domestic connections from LA. If you provide more info on things like whether you usually fly economy class or business class, how many miles a year you fly and what cities you usually fly to, that might help. Even then, there will likely by plusses and minuses on both sides of the equation.