Hello to all the UA experts, I'm humbly coming to you for advice!

Sadly, I find myself in a position to have to learn a whole new program(s) and I could use some expertise to make the right decision.

Because of a new contract my company has for corporate discounts with LH, I am going to be forced to book LH flights whenever possible. I need some help deciding (maybe understanding is a better word) which program is better for me, so I hope that I can get some direction from the UA/LH experts.

My flying is mostly to India with some domestic (I estimate 10 trips/year) and 2-3 trips/year to Europe/other-Asia.

I'm posting this in the UA forum because MP is the program I am leaning towards. I've been happy for the most part with SkyTeam for years, and I am not thrilled about changing.

Is UA the right program for me? Or am I better off with LH since that is the majority of the metal that I will do BIS?

If UA is the choice to make, should I do a status match request this year (I will only get another 20-30k eqm the remainder of this year) or should I wait and request the status match in January? I see mentions of 'challenges', but I haven't had much luck searching for specifics to understand how they work.

Thanks for any help!