i suppose this list could go on for quite a long time.

Another consideration is how much free time you have. For years I had a lot of free time and kept six FF accounts for each of the five members of my family. With the various promotions I could collect several free tix every year for every person in each program for several hours of work each month chasing promotions and ordering and cancelling credit cards. Now I cannot be bothered to spend the time. As explained above, only you can decide what your time is worth.

It's a moving target with a ton of variables, and even when you do finally figure it out they could make some boneheaded change (like 50% EQMs) that upsets the whole balance.

Truth to tell, many FTers are hub-captive biz travelers, so it's very hard not to go with the airline that has most of the non-stop flights in a business situation. In ATL, for example, DL is still dominant, even though you can bang your head against the wall trying to use DL miles for an award trip to Australia.

Whatever you do, don't hoard too many miles. They won't earn interest or appreciate in value. I think when the baby boomers retire you'll see a lot of people wanting to tap into huge balances accumulated while working, and that'll put more strain on already strained availability.

Kaz & RustyC you both have it exactly right!

I am with less time nowadays and yet I do some promos with my CCs to get miles and burn them as I go.

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Used to be that people would tout how many miles they had as if that made them cool. Now some do have huge stashes and it IS cool to be able to call up and get FC tix to Fiji with status, etc, but I have another thread on how, even if you have the best seat in the plane, it can still suck because of things like delays, security, customs, immigration, rules and all that crap we are also facing more than ever.

Soon flying will not be about enticing people to join up, but trying to keep them away. The mile got people interested. Now we bang at the closed door as they send out bouncers to tell us our money is no good here and we need not apply.

I am a PE with NW and the upgrades are nice, but the customer service is generally the pits with NW - the one exception being the PE telephone line. The upgrades and the PE line keep me flying NW (and the fact that they are the only airline that serves my small central MN city). But if I had a choice, I would fly any other airline anytime. In flight service on other airlines is generally better, baggage handling is generally better (priority luggage tags for elites means "send to the baggage belt last"), etc. Flew twice last week with NW and the deception by the ground staff on both days was horrific - stating that a flight was canceled due to weather when in reality it was mechanical and crew time out, closing the boarding door "on time" but then sitting for 20 minutes at the gate while the GA found a seat belt to pass through the cockpit window. How can an airline operate when it deceives its passengers and the FAA like that?

Sorry, JRG01 has hit the nail on the head.

I'd actually go so far as to say this:

ALLLLLL the airlines these days lack in customer service!

If you do not have status (probably the case if you are new to this) then fuhgetaboudit. And United is particularly obvious in its treatment to the lower classes. If you do have status, this does not mean they wont screw up on you too, making some even MORE upset because they really should not screw up there.

be prepared.