I currently live in El Salvador and in the past made frequent trips to the US. I have been an AA FF member for over 8 years and have hit gold easily in the last 5. Last year I just missed getting AA Plat being 2600 miles short of 50k mark by 31 Dec 2002.

What makes this more painful is I had the return leg of a SAL/BOS RT on 3 Jan 2003 which would have put me within 500 miles of 50k (and an automatic upgrade to PLAT) if it had been on/before 31 Dec. I also took an LA/BKK flight on JL during the year but didn�t use the AA Codeshare so the miles I got did not go towards Elite Status.

Thinking that, while not being a high paying customer but at least loyal, consistent one, I might be able to get a little leeway with AA and beg for PLAT status, I called AA CS (twice) only to be treated like I was a crazy to even think they would bend the rules even a little.

Lately I have been traveling with more frequency to SE Asia and it is very possible that I will be moving to BKK the middle of this year for travel around the region. Because of my membership with AA I have often booked my Asian trips on AA and partners (CX, JL) out of loyality and to maximize miles even though it has usually cost a bit more than other airlines. But considering the above I am thinking of changing programs to get both miles and cheaper fares.

My question for the experts is given my base and area of travel, which FF program would you recommend. I might add that what I personally see as the main benefit of Elite status is business or first class check-in when flying economy and lounge access when overseas. I was thinking that a member of Star Alliance might be a good choice. Also, since Air Canada only requires 35k to qualify for their second tier status (and lounge access) would that be a good chioce?

Thanks for any help and excuse the long post from this first-timer at FT,

I went with AA a while back because, in those days, I could combine US AIR with AA (anyone remember that??)?? Then the fell-through merger plans between UA and US AIR happened and severed the FF Program alliance with the AA and US Air (I have hated UA ever since). In those days for $80.00 (taxes included), I could get 5000 miles on one RT BOS-LGA shuttle flight.

Currently, AA is my choice because of its Alliance with CX and perks for EXP/Emerald, otherwise I will jump to Asia Miles/Marco Polo Club in a NY minute (I'm already a member of Asia Miles).

For South America, I recommend you stay with AA and use flights with the OWA (One World Alliance). JAL is great, but not a OWA member, at this time.

SHADO

I should have said, given my future base and area of travel (ie BKK/ SE Asia), what would you recommend?