I currently live in El Salvador and in the past made frequent trips to the US. I have been an AA FF member for over 8 years and have hit gold easily in the last 5. Last year I just missed getting AA Plat being 2600 miles short of 50k mark by 31 Dec 2002.

What makes this more painful is I had the return leg of a SAL/BOS RT on 3 Jan 2003 which would have put me within 500 miles of 50k (and an automatic upgrade to PLAT) if it had been on/before 31 Dec. I also took an LA/BKK flight on JL during the year but didn’t use the AA Codeshare so the miles I got did not go towards Elite Status.

Thinking that, while not being a high paying customer but at least loyal, consistent one, I might be able to get a little leeway with AA and beg for PLAT status, I called AA CS (twice) only to be treated like I was a crazy to even think they would bend the rules even a little.

Lately I have been traveling with more frequency to SE Asia and it is very possible that I will be moving to BKK the middle of this year for travel around the region. Because of my membership with AA I have often booked my Asian trips on AA and partners (CX, JL) out of loyality and to maximize miles even though it has usually cost a bit more than other airlines. But considering the above I am thinking of changing programs to get both miles and cheaper fares.

My question for the experts is given my base and area of travel, which FF program would you recommend. I might add that what I personally see as the main benefit of Elite status is business or first class check-in when flying economy and lounge access when overseas. I was thinking that a member of Star Alliance might be a good choice. Also, since Air Canada only requires 35k to qualify for their second tier status (and lounge access) would that be a good chioce?

Thanks for any help and excuse the long post from this first-timer at FT,