TrojanHorse, if I were you I would definitely shoot for UA over AA. Since you live on the East Coast and with the new codeshare deals between UA-US, having elite status on UA will give you more flexibility than elite status on AA... IMO.

Of course, it depends on your routing too. UA and the Star Alliance has a route structure second to none. If you're keen on keeping the CO status, here's what I would do:

75k - CO (NW, Wings)
50k - UA (US, Star)
25k - Alaskan (AA, CO, and others)

for 5-6 consecutive years i was :

Lufthansa M&M Senator
BAEC Gold
KLM Royal Wing

i then shifted some business away from KLM
and , like Rudi , will give them another chance after the generous comp/promo , which may mean to sacrifice status in BAEC,simply for the reason that their RTW fares are not competative any longer ( increasing prices by more than 50% like in southafrica did not help here either ).

Is anyone here like me? 103 segment CP with US and only 71,350 miles? same on CO! 30 Segment Silver elite, 18,000 miles! Seems most on here are flying the whole wide world and I'm stuck in the USA east of the Mississippi! With that travel pattern I doubt if I will ever rack up the miles I see here. Do I need to start to consider "Mileage Runs". I want to maximize my CP status and I can't see how doing "Runs" helps. Or do I use CO and build that up? suggestions from the experts please!!!

AS MVP Gold - But this one's somewhat easy to make.

UA 1K - Will make it by a whisper with my last PDX/BKK fun and run Dec. 24 - Dec. 30. This would have been easier if I would have switched more of my flights to UA after requalifying for AS MVP Gold by June of this year. Oh well, I'll keep a better watch in 2003.

CS

UA 1K and AA EXP (next week) here. I'm starting to get a clue...

In 1998, I flew USAir a lot. Downright stupid of me. :P

In 1999, I did 225K exclusively on UA. At least I got away from US, but it was quite an inefficient allocation of miles, from a status perspective.

In 2000, I did a little over 100K on UA and a little over 50K on AA to get 1K and PLT. Getting better..

In 2001, well, let's not mention 2001. I only did about 60K, all on AA. Fortunately, UA extended my 1K status into 2002.

In 2002, I discovered FlyerTalk and finally figured out how to do things right. I will hit 100,000 on AA next weekend to qualify for EXP and I'll reach 100,000 on UA in two weeks to re-qual for 1K.

Now I just need to do a little over 25K in Nov and Dec to break my PR for miles in a year...

Bruce,

Somewhat like you, I made a few "miles allocating" mistakes this year...I flew over 60K on AS (qualification for their MVPG is 35K) before I realized that I could have been pumping some miles into AA, where I will be attaining EXP for '03 by 12/16/02.

Thus, I "wasted" about 25K miles, having to schedule some MRs on AA to get to EXP. The cost of this mistake wound up being about $1800, but what the hey, the airlines need my money, right?

Next year I'll be a little smarter about miles allocation!

1995-2000

CO-top level, Gold then Plat

2001

TWA-Plat
CO-Plat

2002

AA-EXP 98K
CO-Plat 67 segs

I'll requalify for both, but probably boot CO next year.

I'm with you. I am a member of the "painfully earns my elite status the hardway" club. I have 68 segments so far, only 51k miles (this includes ~15k miles for doing LAX-HNL-LAX and a LAX-LHR-LAX ). Past two years, I have probably ~120+ segments each year, but I barely squeek by 100k miles (and that is with doing a couple of transocean mileage runs!!).

For me to make top level elite on multiple airlines based on my flying patters, I would have to take 300+ flights lax-sjc-lax.

Last year:

140k on DL, about 10k scattered among everyone else.

This year:

130k on AA
100k on DL (thanks to 2x miles, no extra travel booked, and the 10k base miles from Amex)
5k on everyone else

Next year: (assuming no further cuts)

100+k on AA
Everything else is negotiable.

i once got 3 emeralds on OW last year.
(but a lot less this year)

in fact, these are spread over some 20 month period, due to different membership year starting points of these programs,
160k on AA for explt
2700 tier points on BA GOLD
and 65k to renew my CX MPO Diamond into Gold.

it is, in fact, not difficult to retain BA if you fly in th efront cabin,

Here I go.
UA 1K 135,000 miles
AA Plat Exec 152,000 miles (mostly CX)
CO Plat Exec 76,000 miles
BA Gold 1240 points
SQ Gold (I think that is what they call it) 105,000 miles

God, this is actually depressing!

I track my monthly segments on my calendar starting around mid-year to ensure obtaining the 100 segment threshold on both DL and US. I'm going on 7 years as Chairman's Preferred on US and 3 years as PM on Delta, but due to changing travel patterns, I doubt I make DL PM this year. I've had AA Platinum the last 6 years, usually through begging or a comp. UA Premier Exec now and two years ago, both times through comps.

LH Sen: I requalified this year until 2006 due to the 120 segments rule (I flew mainly short distances in Europe with 1000/2000miles (Y/C-class) and some in Asia with 500/1000/1500miles (Y/C/F-class) only. Therefore I requalified by segments firstly; a few weeks later I reached the miles limit, too.)
KL Plt: I qualified for this great offer by flying about 16000miles. LH Sen is secured for the next time and so I'm going to give KLM a chance. The first impression was quite good. (In case KLM joins SkyTeam, I'm going to be very happy.)

Off topic hotels:
MRT Plt: I stayed in Marriott hotels mainly in Germany and in some Marriotts in Europe.
SPG Plt: I stayed in Starwood hotels mainly in Germany and Europe. I also had some stays in Asia and will have soon two stays in South America.

I held top status on our preferred carriers, CO and Dl for 3 straight years in a row a few years ago. The DL flights were almost all to Europe and San Juan (all through ATL) and CO for the domestic trips. I was managing a group of engineers doing plant start-ups and always on call. Although my company had a policy of u/g to business class for trips 5+ hours, we managers were encouraged to �set an good example� and book only coach. Looking back it was a very grueling time.

MisterNice

This year I'll qualify for UA 1K, Delta PM, and SQ PPS. I'll also hold about half a dozen second tier cards which includes most US majors and all the alliances.

Previously, I used to fly Delta first and not pay attention to other airlines and only qualify for their elite programs by luck. When Delta stopped handing out SWU's for additional mileage I decided to go for more than one 1000,000 level. It was easy to move an extra block of mileage to get more SWU's froma nother carrier. I wonder why Delta didn't see that.