I already got almost everything booked for my 1K for next year, and with my July MR, I should hit my goal by July. I still got at least 1 RT flight Sept-Dec to Europe(KRK) from USA (ORD). I was thinking of trying to get status on another carrier. I got 1/4 status towards my BA silver, and thats about it. I was thinking either OW or ST.
I would probably do a creative routing, like I usually do to Europe (example: ORD-LAX-SNA-SFO-LAX-JFK-IAD-FRA-MUC-KRK) just to reach the next level. Probably 20K+ or more. MRs are possible.
Also to add I got a foreign address, so if there are better benefits for European members I could use that.

What would you recommend? I like VS (since they will be flying out from ORD, but I wouldnt get any tier pts for domestic flights) CO is OK (but their GAs were horrible to me) I would try them again. DL or NW might be also an option (but havent flew them in ages) I would buy most likely near full fare Economy (like I do on UA $1500-1800 USA-Europe tickets) so I can get the 150% or more EQM and also use miles to upgrade, and for the flight I would want to upgrade to C. I could use miles from my AMEX (CO or DL or VS or Flying blue or alitalia)
Basically benefits I was looking at was priority checkin, upgrades, great service. Lounge access is optional since with my AMEX plat I got CO, MW and DL.


What would you recommend?

IMHO, a lot of it depends on you want to connect in the states. I've never been too partial to DL's hubs in ATL, and I'm definitely not a big fan of CO's EWR hub (which sounds like the best bet for yoru travel to ORD). I would recommend NW because of DTW, which IMHO is a great hub and a quick hop from ORD. You might also consider CO, which can route you down south from ORD, picking up the extra miles.

I dont care too much as it wont be a straight flight. IAH might work.

Anyone else has any comments? Anything to point me towards a certain one, that might be better than another one?

Pick the carrier you're going to fly and join theirs. CO gets a bad rep for redemption, and redeeming miles on their metal can be difficult at times, but they have availability on their partners as well that is usually pretty good, and that's what you'd be booking anyways if you were a flier on the partner.

There are a lot of 50% EQM earning rules amongst DL/NW/CO. I believe that all three now give 50% on the others' discounted fares (maybe not DL/NW to each other), but that will affect your earn rate.

I'm in CO and I like it. Of course, I also put up with EWR, so maybe I'm not a good barometer