I think I need to choose a new FF program and want some help from those in the know. A little history first.

I am, by my own admission, really bad at choosing an airline loyalty program. I started in 2005 with VS and got Gold for two years running by the skin of my teeth and by some questionable routing. In 2008 I joined BD because they status-matched me to BD*G, but hardly any of my journeys were on BD metal so I never got op-ups. The *A network kept me in Gold on that until BA bought BD. I refuse to fly on BA (a long story, not worth getting into) so I got comp status matches to TK and NZ. I used the NZ card for the last year but missed retaining Gold by 10 points and never flew on NZ metal the whole year. I now have BA Gold, TK*G and NZ*S in my wallet. By far, most of my flights are on LH, although I do travel all around the world mainly on *A airlines.

Question is, what do I do now? NZ only seems to earn points on around half the *A flights I take and TK seems to be a poor earner, so both of those don't really interest me. Most of my flights seem to be on LH, but it seems like it's hard to get to SEN status and most SEN's seem to be constantly complaining about M&M's devaluation. I'd like to stay with *A as they have the best worldwide coverage.

Any suggestions ?

What is of value to you?

-Upgrades?
-Lounges?
-Miles for travel?

All of the above. I fly everywhere in economy, so upgrades would be nice. I also want to get lounge access for the same reason. Earning miles is probably the least important, but I need to be able maintain status (as I failed to do with NZ).

Have you looked at A3?

Once you credit 20k miles to them from any *A carrier you will get *gold. Then to maintain you only need to credit one flight to them every 36 months.

I'm going the A3 route myself...but that's because I know I won't fly 50,000 miles this year on a *A carrier.

I'll have the baggage allowance, priority checkin/security, lounge access, and preboarding, but probably never any upgrades unless I buy 'em. Partner elites don't score too many freebies when it comes to upgrades.

If I thought I had a legit shot at Star Gold on the actual metal I flew most often, I would be putting my miles there.

Note: A3 also has some funky rules on what fares count for 100% tier miles. Most of the common leisure fares on UA are 50% qualifying. On US, they're 100% Check your own likely carrier(s) to see what counts and what doesn't.

I've got a YUL-LHR-SIN RT on LX in P later this year that posts at 200%, so I am going to post one direction on A3 to get over 20K and get *Gold, then post the return to UA.

I also make at least 6 or 7 flights a year YYZ-YUL so every third year I will post one of those to A3 to maintain it.

Look here:-
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Do not over look AS - a good ffp for many it has many airline partners
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan.aspx

Air NZ is a terrible ffp now. Many people here on FT are looking to leave / have left Air NZ for other Star Alliance FFP's

Generally upgrades are only available on your ffp airline flight numbers and your ffp airline aircraft. Not on codeshares or other airline partners. But there are exceptions [The fine details of ffp's are not simple]