After spending over a year in the US, and enjoying all of the mileage offers available to people here, I am bound to return to my homeland, France.

Since I have accumulated a certain amount of miles and status in a number of accounts while living here, I am now facing the question of what to do with all those accounts.

I would be interested to hear opinions of fellow Flyertalkers with similar experience.

I believe my future travel patterns to be mostly throughout Europe, with the occasional business/leisure trip to Asia and America.

Here are the accounts that I am considering keeping:
- AF (obvious reasons)
- AA (Status + OneWorld)
- NWA (KLM)
- Hilton (Status + International presence)
- Starwood (Status + International presence)
- Priority Club (International)

Here are the ones I'm thinking of getting rid of:
- UA (insignificant amount of miles)
- America West (insignificant amount of miles, no International)
- Southwest (points do not carry, no International)
- Marriott (insignificant number of points)
- Radisson/Goldpoints (not available outside US)

Should I keep these accounts, even though I'm probably not going to be using them as much in the future ? If not, do you have suggestions on what to do with these insignificant amount of miles.

Also, I would be interested to know what my options are, in order to be able to maximise earnings while living in Europe.

Can/should I keep my US address registered on those accounts, so that I do not get automatically shut out of promotional offers ?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Between just Air France and AA, you should be covered. I would also add BA since you can not earn AA miles on transatlantic. All in all, you are in good shape with Sky Team (DL, AF and others) and of course One World (AA, BA, etc.) You could also keep America West and fly BA transatlantic and deposit miles with them.

For those accounts with orphan miles (not enough miles to redeem an award), I would suggest you do your laundry at Hilton. Convert them into Hilton points despite losing some of their value, as something is better than nothing. With saying that, you should keep Hilton definitely because of their expansive network and double dipping. I would also look into Radisson as they have more properties through Europe. Earning miles with hotel stays is better than points in Starwood or Hyatt.

Hope this helps. BTW, Air France and BA still give 500 miles per car rental while US carriers give a paltry 50 miles per day.

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

I can't think of anything better then donating those miles to charity causes!

You may want to double check that - I think they made changes lately.

From Radisson I got that letter abou 2 month ago, that they discontinue the program for 95% (aka outside of NA).

Thanks a lot for your help.

Also, how does the Northwest/KLM relationship compare to other alliances, as far as redeeming opportunities go, when living in Europe ?

Any tips on additional mileage earning opportunities ? I am thinking of getting the AF Amex credit card.

If you can, keep your US address. A number of programs have different benefits and offers only for those residing in NAmerica, and these are usually better than the ones -- or the nones -- offered to non-residents. You may even find AF provides more bonuses to those having US addresses.

I agree with Shareholder, and can recommend http://www.usabox.com

They are a Miami based virtual mailbox service that can forward your mail via DHL (for a fee) anywhere in the world. I've been using them for the last 18 months, they've done an excellent job.