UA has always for me! But again, there is nothing easy about reedeming ff miles!

Alaska miles
 

Given your location, Alaska might be the way to go. For years I used their credit card for miles because I flew between SNA and OAK a lot to go to bay area and used them to go to Montana fishing. Three times I was able to use amassed miles for business class seats on BA to Europe: once to Greece, once to France and once to London. This was the off or shoulder season though. They also had a companion fair deal that I could use for 1st class from LAX to DCA so the cost was no more than 2 coach seats on UA. They stopped the Oakland route and I don't get to Montana twice a year any more, so I have not been ammassing their miles. I am finding it much more difficult to use my amassed UA and Delta miles to get business class to Europe. I would go back to Alaska if they flew were I needed to go.

This is a no brainer, Alaska/Horizon is the way to go for you. The cities you mentioned you travel to are mostly served by AS, and the ones that aren't have plenty of partner access. The cool thing about Alaska is they have partners in both OneWorld and Skyteam, the two most notable being American and Delta. Tons of great international partners for redeeming those miles for lots of bang for you buck too Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and LAN all immediately come to mind.

Domestically, Alaska has the highest availability of award space for any US airline except for Southwest. I believe the number is something like 77% of all AS flights are available at any given time for redemption at the lowest level.

AS MVP is also probably the most valuable bottom tier status you could ever have as well, if you get there. When I was an MVP, I almost never missed an upgrade. I had a better upgrade percentage than many top tier elites on airlines like American and United. AS elites also get free upgrades on Delta when space is available after all their elites have been upgraded.

AS has a couple Visa card options, and there's a great AS Visa business card with tons of worthwhile benefits. They even offer a debit card that earns you miles if you want one of those too. Here's all the stuff you get with the various cards:
https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/us/a...2157572-299118

I have many other options for my loyalty, but Alaska is without a doubt the best, easiest, most valuable program to be a part of.