Originally Posted by
sigmazero
And somewhat related to that, are there any lifetime programs that are worth pursuing (my understanding is that AA has one at 1M miles, but that sounds rather daunting to me...).
AA's lifetime program is a lot more user-friendly than UA's lifetime program.
With UA, they count base miles on UA metal, so 1 million miles means 1 million miles on UA flights. If you reach that goalpost, you get Premier Exec for life.
On AA, 1 million miles means 1 million miles from any source (flights, bonus miles, credit card miles, airline promotions), and will get you lifetime Gold status. Accumulate 2 million miles and you'll get lifetime Platinum (equivalent of PE at United).