Originally Posted by breneman

I am currently a Premier Executive UA Mileage Plus member, but will probably only make it to Premier this year. I live in Australia now, and frequently fly to Europe, usually Sweden. My last few trips have been with Thai.

Since I can no longer use my Mileage Plus miles to upgrade (a notice on the homepage reads "we will no longer accept Star Alliance Upgrade Award requests at this time") I am wondering if I should perhaps switch to a different FF program.

I would think that Thai would be the obvious choice, especially since applying at the right time of year will provide extended time to achieve elevated status, and once reached, that status will be held for two years, instead of one.

The only drawback I can think of is that I won't be enjoying my Mileage Plus status while collecting miles for Royal Orchid Plus status.

Am I missing anything? Are there any good reasons to stay with UA? Would possibly a program other than Thai's suit me better? (Singapore has been recommended several times.) Any gotchas I should be aware of?

I have spent the last four hours trying to make sense of the wealth of (often conflicting) information I have found. Any comments or links to relevant information would be greatly appreciated.