Originally Posted by
gleff
Your profile says you're in MKE, so you're not flying non-stop to AMS in any case. UA flies ORD-AMS non-stop.
Stick with UA, fly the incremental miles over 100k, and earn additional SWUs for use on MKE-ORD-AMS.
It's not as though you'll be in great shape for upgrades with Skyteam, UA allows upgrades on lower fares.. has more seats to upgrade into.. and is updating their fleet with better seats to boot. Plus the miles you earn are much more valuable than those on Skyteam airlines.
Thanks for the helpful info, Gleff.
Actually, I tend to fly Lufthansa and Austrian more often because I can get much cheaper consolidator fares. United does not seem to favor consolidators at all. NW/KLM, on the other hand, is even cheaper than Lufthansa. (BTW: all fares in business class).