New job has some great travel coming up, and I expect at least the same for the next few years, plus personal travel. I am currently an AS MVP.. AS has limited international benefits but great ones for someone living in SEA. That said, I'm going to be doing a lot of paid business class travel, and it seems getting upper tier status on a carrier with int'l routes and network seems a good idea (ie why lose the EQM class of service boost when on Korean air, etc). For work, I'll be traveling to nrt/pek/icn/sin in asia, plus some india and australia travel, possibly other places. Paid business for long haul. Personal travel is who knows other than one europe trip coming up and that's in coach.

The main goal for me is maximizing status at this point, hence trying to pick one carrier. Earning miles is secondary (I've got a ton on AS, and will earn on this new carrier). Quality of service is a meh because say I pick DL, I can fly korean air through most of asia.

I've flown 5k thus far on AS this year noted below, plus here's what else:

complete 5000 on AS (non-alliance but earns EQM from DL, AF, AA, and gives EQM to the same)

booked
4755 DL biz (Skyteam)
1320 ANA (star)
557 Korea Air (Skyteam)
5206 Korea AIr biz (skyteam)

10000 DL econ (Skyteam)
1500 Malev (Hungarian, OneWorld but wikipedia says they're a DL codeshare)

partially booked
4500 AS (mostly has to be AS but could also go to DL or UA in some cases)

Likely travel this year to also include US to India, SIN, SYD in one trip and I can likely steer to a particular alliance - so figure possibly another 20k miles. USA travel probably add another 10k.

I leave in 12 days for 15k miles of EQM and need to pick where I'm going to put it. DL seems like the best choice, what do you think?

I have no problems walking away from the 5k of EQM already earned on AS and starting over/status matching with them for the rest of the year. I suppose I'm best looking at anyone sky team... and DL seemed natural since they're in my country. I can stay on AS and lose out on the korean air EQM (8k?) but have no alliance status. ALso - I will likely get a priority pass, or club membership, depending on where I end up, for my non-biz class flights.

Hopefully this doesn't start an uproar/flame war. I really just want to maximize what I'm going to be earning.

I am in a similar situation here [but no paid J/C for me ] with AS's limited routes out of LAX.

It depends on what you want out of your primary carrier and which benefit you value the most...

Based on your destinations, I would either pick Delta or United...

1. Destinations/Routes

Almost all destinations you mentioned is served by both carriers:

United- Does not fly to India but codeshares with Lufthansa. Has a daily flight to NRT where you can connect onward to the other 3 Asian cities... Or, you can easily fly a short flight to SFO then fly nonstop to all destinations except SIN. Does not fly any flights to Europe from SEA, but can fly on Lufthansa.

Delta- You will have to connect in NRT to go to any Asian destinations. Delta flies nonstop from SEA to NRT and AMS and you can easily connect in PDX for NRT/AMS as well. Also, do not forget the upcoming reciprocal upgrades on AS and you can earn full miles towards DL.

2. Miles

This is the whole purpose of an FF program

United- Vast alliance giving you plenty of opportunities to redeem your miles...

Delta- SkyPesos is self-explanatory

3. Cabin Comfort

Since you will be flying in paid J/C I think the biggest concern would be the seats on the planes and the service.

United- Halfway done with upgrading their entire fleet to lie-flats... 777 conversions is underway and should be done in a year or so. If you want flat beds, you can connect in SFO and fly on the 747.

Delta- Announced they will convert their J seats on all aircrafts except the 747s and 330s, so they will only have angled lie-flat on SEA-AMS/NRT.

4. Elite Benefits

United-SWUs for personal travel is a plus and since you will be flying in paid C, you could be invitied into GS if you spend $50,000 or so in F, C, and Full Fare Y.

Delta- PMUs Rollever MQMs is nice, but means more elites

Work is calling, will come back and discuss more, but I have one question for you.

Since AS will have reciprocal benefits with DL in August and you are SEA based, why not do UA and maintain your AS status. That way you will have elite benefits on UA/CO and AS/DL/possibly AA too... You can earn COS EQM bonus with AS if flying in J on DL but only 25% not 50%...

I would stick with AS and direct as many of the long haul flights as possible to DL/KE. Since you're flying paid business anyway, the other benefits of alliance status aren't all that special. Top tier on AS, on the other hand, is a great thing to have for people based in the NW.

Some good points...

Hadn't thought about UA really because I've typically been completely disappointed by them. AS has been awesome but I've also never flown UA int'l. WIth 15-20k already booked on DL/KE, going to UA at this point seems foolish anyway, but maybe match and go there next year. Sticking with AS may end up being a good idea because yes, most int'l flights will be in J anyway, so save the status for domestic. I think it'll come down to DL vs. AS.

Destinations...
Delta seems to work for tokyo, singapore, beijing, korea, but really only if i keep going through tokyo. KE would serve me if I were on DL... but if banking to AS those EQM end up wasted. Partially works for india but only if I go the wrong way which is unlikely as it'll usually be tied in with other countries.. i could see lax-syd on DL... and then bounce around not earning EQM till i can catch a DL return from NRT. If i were banking to DL I could do syd-icn-bangalore or something like that .

Miles..
is redemption really that bad on DL? I have no experience, only really have redeemed on AS and UA

Comfort..
it's all better than coach and i'm not at a point of being picky. have no problem with trying it all for now.

Elite bennies
unlikely i'll hit $50k in rev this year, maybe in the future; GS is out.
PMUs seem to not be working, correct?
AS upgrades super nice and i think it'd be reasonable to hit 50k and gold esp if EQMs post with class of service bonus

Going with half UA/AS doesn't seem like a good idea since i'd end up getting low status on both vs. higher status with one.

I do see value in AS status for my personal domestic travel, esp if i hit gold.

still undecided tho

To make it easier, how many EQMs you think you will do this year and next year including class of service bonus?

Yeah, I heard UA's customer service is subpar in Y, but it seems to be pretty decent in C and F...

Unfortunately, yes.... Domestic F is not too bad, but international J is horrible for advance booking... If you book within 21 days you will find some availability at low level [perhaps several days in a 21 day period]... Whats more, they ding you $$$ to book a free ticket for "last minute" booking... So dumb... Do a search in the DL forum and you will find gazillions of compliant about redeeming on DL, about their award calendar being "broken", and the fact that they ding you $$$ for a free ticket when you book less than 21 days out... Problem is they rarely release low award inventory until you are within the 21 days window and now they ding you with "last minute" fees...

The biggest problem with PMUs is only Y, B, and M fares are eligible for upgrades internationally... What's more, your upgrade is not guaranteed, so that means you will shell out $3000 and you might not even get upgraded at all... UA's SWUs are eligible in W fare class or higher which is normally about $100-300 more than the lowest fare and of course upgrades are not guaranteed but you are shelling out $100-300 more to take the risk compared to $2000 more on DL...

Yeah that is why I am asking you how many EQMs you think you will do in a single year with COS bonuses. IIRC you have the AS Bofa Visa and you will get 4 "SWU" certs per year, which is enough to get you flying 25K per year on AS, then that leaves you with another 25K to "earn"...

Yeah, depends on how many EQMs per year you do.... If 150K per year then you are in for a treat

Remember, UA and CO is likely to merge [depends on whether DOJ approves it or not, but that is another story ], so maybe I would start off with DL for now, and when the merger gets approved... Then at that point they should draft out the "merged" FF and its benefits... From there you can determine if a status match over to the new UA is worth it or not... Currently, CO will status match people to Platinum, while UA will only status match you to Premier Executive granted you fly 15,000 BIS miles on UA within 90 days....

The biggest thing for me about C/J is flat beds.... UA/CO is way ahead in the game compared to DL... All of UA and CO's international fleet will have flat beds by 2012, while DL has established a timeline for 2013, but I wouldn't count on it...

I'd guess pre- class of service ~35-40k/year. Just a guess. CoS, add another 10?

Didn't realize the Y/B/M problem on DL. I can appreciate the SWU benefit moreso now. CO/UA certainly doable but not this year for me due to the existing booked travel. I don't see a status match as a problem as next year i'll do it just before another world tour

Yes, i do have the AS visa, as does the gf so it is useful. If I were to move to delta I'd probably keep and get the high end card there, for the mqm and other benefits.

However, I'm thinking my best bet might be to stick with AS for this year and flesh out what my future travel will look like. I can punt KE to my DL acct in case I change my mind, but throw the DL and AS flights into AS and likely hit gold if I do some creative routing and so on. Next year, do a match to somewhere else and move on to a true alliance.

OP is based in SEA, which is served by UA 777 to NRT (old business, probably for quite a while).

You should keep AS for status for now. DL will have full reciprocity soon. AS miles are easier to use than DL

You can get to Plat on CO by match. Use that status for UA travel. 20k in C = 30k in MQMs more than enough to stay 2p next year (good for occasional domestic Y in e+)

India is served by CO via EWR. From there to SIN and SYD is by SQ and then you can keep NZ or UA for trip back.

It seems this is almost a no brainer with UAL as your most logical choice. I advise you reluctantly because I like my UAL benefits and don't want one more person to learn of them-laugh.

so i think i'll what people have been suggesting of stick to AS for eqm this year, and match to UA next year... or at least revisit the problem then.

i guess question now is, should i put my KE miles somewhere besides AS? they'll earn as RDM, not EQM... but with the CoS bonus plus my status bonus, that's not too bad. i could, however, put them into a KE acct or my DL acct just in case my next trip falls out of my control and i end up solely on KE... which would be 15k EQM worth working with.... while i doubt that'll be the case, it's certainly possible.

I would definitely look at UA. With the Star Alliance, you have so many choices of airlines to fly, in case UA can't get you all of the way. If you want the lie-flat seats in C (business) and F, you could always take a quick flight down to SFO. Just think of it as earning extra miles! Plus, UA has much better redemption than Delta!

Since I live in Portland (similar situation to SEA, though we don't have a UA flight to Japan), I'm familiar with the idea of getting up at 6a just to grab UA flights ex-SFO. Suffice it to say, it's not an extremely glamorous plan.

While I agree with you that Sky Miles are terrible, the DL in flight experience is solid, especially in J. What's more, AS Mileage Plan is a pretty good FFP.