First, apologies in advance for the selfish post. Feel free to ignore.

As a long time UA 1K flyer recently demoted to 0K (Yay!), now may be time time to actually execute the bluff many of us UA Mileage Plus members have been making for years, namely to actually leave UA.

I'd be interested in any recommendations on mileage programs given that it would virtually be starting from scratch (so the fastest path to some/any sort of status would be ideal, heh!).

Travel is primarily between the following destinations (in order of frequency):

SAN to PDX
SAN to SFO/SJC
SAN to LAS
SAN to ORD/MID
SAN to MIA
SAN to Asia
SAN to Europe

You can try the US Trial Preferred Program that costs 215$ and gives you instant Silver status and allows you to reach even Chairman status with 30K miles in 3 months!

Just make sure you become aware of the terms and the conditions and time your participation so as to maximize the benefits!!

Huh! If I read that page right, it looks like you can basically buy 90 days of Star Alliance Gold status for $400?!

I just had to decide which FF program to focus on for my 2 year old now that we are buying him his own tickets. Literally starting from scratch. Ended up choosing AS so he can earn in one program across AA and DL, which is what we primarily fly along with WN. Ease of getting elite status was not a driver, but he is 40% of the way there for 2012.

You have WN A-list to cover SFO/SJC and LAS. AS with partners would fill in nicely for PDX, ORD, and MIA + International.

If you fly DL but do the Alaska FF program, you would rarely get upgrades because DL will upgrade their own elites first.

DL would work for many of your destinations, although SAN is elite heavy and PMs frequently ride in coach.

What do you want from a FF program? Free tickets? Upgrades? Lounge access? Waived fees?

I've actually never flown AS but am willing to give it a try! Any comparison to UA or AA that's worth noting? Company policy dictates we travel in Y.

One WN item, I may not requalify for A-List if I split travel between two airlines, so I think I need to go all-in with WN or with another carrier. Sounds like people have little trouble converting AS miles to AA, which would be great (especially if they also translate into OneWorld miles; AS' website seemed unclear about this?)

For me personally:

#1: Best economy seating possible (exit, bulkhead, pitch, etc.)
#2: Priority check-in / security lines / boarding
#3: Upgrades, but on the way to elite, it's all about #1
#4: Customer Support during Irregular Ops (UA was excellent at this)
#5: Everything else

Except for the recent UA/CO mess, UA clearly wins on #1 with lots of Y+ seats assuming that you can do 50K status miles per year for their Gold level, formerly known as 1P. On your other top criteria, UA/CO does pretty well.

DL is introducing Y+ on domestic flights, but they don't have many rows and like the new UA/CO, require Gold elite status to reserve these seats for free earlier than OLCI at T-24.