My husband has begun to travel for business. He expects to travel approx. 60K a year, indefinatley. We have just woken up to the perks of loyalty to one airline (We've been living in a cave!) and I'm trying to figure out which airline that should be.

Since we live in Metro Detroit, NW owns almost all of our travel, which until now has been less than 10K/year, for personal stuff. He now flies to OAK via CO, AA, AW, or (rarely)NW because it is so much cheaper than flying non-stop to SFO on NW.

He was made AW Silver status, (and we didn't even know it existed, which is what woke us up to this whole game) but has decided he isn't crazy about AW and will try to get comped, and eventually earn Gold, on either NW, AA, or CO. My eyes are literally glazing over from reserching all the pros and cons of each.

My ultimate goal isn't to earn free flights, but upgrades, both for his buisness travel and our personal travel together. We had a lot of miles from our WP VISA, so we'd be happy to use them for upgrades for me - but will I even get them? How much can they be?

I initially was thinking my dilemma was solved when I learned CO honors the status of NW elite, but I was reading several posts on other boards that NW elites are actually second in line after CO elites. Do you find this to be the case? If that is true, maybe he should go with CO, since his (eventual)status will be honored by NW.

I am assuming when people are referring to companion upgrades, they are upgrading for free, am I correct?

Can he give me his upgrade awards?

Or should we just forget about the whole NW/CO thing, keep his regular non-elite WP status, and concentrate on AA, although he probably won't ever climb higher than Silver with AA because he is compelled to take cheaper flights which may be with others.

We have AMEX Membership Rewards cards as well, how do they figure in making this decision?

If we have a OnePAss card, can he still have the miles credited to NW, and vice-versa?

Does AW figure into this situation somehow and I'm not aware of it?

I feel like a slacker just coming to you to explain it all. I really have spent hours trying to figure this all out. I doubt I have even remembered to ask you all my questions!

Any feedback you could give me will be greatly appreciated.