Oh really. Will look into that. But I think 3 return Asia trips for 2yrs should be okay and I may use Asiana unlike Aegean.
Mileage with Asiana 10 or 12yrs should be more than enough.
Will certainly think more about it

Thanks in advance for any advice!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: New position requires travel b/t NYC/BOS and FCO.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Going to guess 25K + this upcoming year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy, alas

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Traveling for work, so can choose airline but must purchase in Y

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transatlantic

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Nope.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades! And I suppose also good award redemption rates.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None.

No upgrades possible in this scenario for you unfortunately. I guess your best option is going for A3/OZ/TK and getting *G, so you can at least get lounge access and not get stiffed by bag fees...

Also, make friends with your seatmate in December on Lufthansa/United - you never know if they have an expiring SWU!

(1) What is your home airport?
Currently, PHL. But about mid-2012, I will be moving. My new home airport will be SCE - a small regional airport that connects to Detroit with Delta, Washington-Dulles with United, and PHL with US.

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Cheapest I can find, as per company policy.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
>50k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
US DM Silver

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.)
Upgrades. I'm a bigger dude and so any extra space is the most important thing for me to get out of the FFP.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
US Domestic. To destinations all across the states - not just east coast.

(7) Preferred Airlines
US, UA, maybe Delta

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Work. Have little flexibility with regards to airlines and class - usually booked through AmEx travel, company regulations around bookings.

---------------------------------

I guess what I'm really curious about is if it would be worth it to aim to achieve silver status on both MP and DM?

I really just started traveling for business this year, and I've achieved Silver with DM. I was thinking that since US hubs out of PHL, I should probably just focus on that one program, so that's what I've done.

However, I'm finding that I think I prefer UA - the couple of times I've flown UA and booked late and been assigned into E+ I've loved it. And getting IFE is both a blessing and a curse. I totally space out and watch whatever they put on. So if I have something I should be doing, I don't usually do it... but that's probably more of a fake complaint than anything. On the other hand, US has in flight internet on some of the cross country flights, and I think UA is working on that, but at the moment, I'm a big enough internet consumer to really be swayed by the availability of a connection.

So I'm a little unsure - everything I've seen says pick one and go with it - especially within an alliance. And that's what I had done. But there's a part of me that thinks being silver on both US and UA would do me more good than being gold on just one of them, for the abilities to get seats with more room.

My other concern would be that getting some status with both might be beneficial with regards to needing to get back into SCE through a larger hub. Something to consider here is that US does offer a few more flights than either of the others (3 each way for Delta, 4 for UA, and 6 for US).

I'm just not sure if being *G though one of them gets me the same benefits that being Silver on both individual programs would?

If I would just focus on one, would there be any reason to not jump ship and go with UA?

Thanks in advance for any input!

IMHO stick with one program. Especially if you can't hit higher levels for 2 programs at the same time. As far as UA is concerned, 50k gets you Premier Exec (Prem Gold next yr) and at least chances for upgrades, where as being a silver gets you virtually nothing other than being able to book a E+ seat at check-in. Diluting your efforts between programs will make it difficult to get to you objective of upgrades. If you can clip 100k in a year, it would still be better to focus on 1 carrier since your status rank puts you in an even better position for upgrades. Plus with UA and 100k miles, you start getting into "Systemwide upgrades" that come in really handy for TATL or TransPac travel. US offers that at their Chairman's level, but only 4 e-certs.

I think I would lean UA on this one.

I would lean US for this one.

The main reason is that UA has a LOT of elites. So most of the upgrades go to 1Ks flying 100k miles a year. I've been on UA flights where the upgrade list is nearly 3/4 the pax on the plane!

On the other hand, on US, you are much, much more likely to get an upgrade as a Gold. and in the rare times you don't, their exit rows are just as good as E+, if not better.

Yes, you should absolutely pick one and stick with it. *G is much more useful than *G in almost every way you can think of...

(1) What is your home airport?

ACT, but a secondary home is ARN (and to an even lesser extent LLA).

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?

Economy, as cheap as posible, but I'm not always able to book early enough to get the deep discount economy. Last year I did mostly S, Y and K.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?

Next year I will do at least 180k but probably closer to 250k.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?

I have AA EXP.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?

In order of priority:

• Frequent upgrades on travel,
• free lounge access,
• priority services when flying the airline,

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)

In order of frequency (guesstimate):

• US to PEK,
• US to Europe,
• US Domestic,
• Within Sweden

(7) Preferred Airlines

I don't know.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?

All work. I can choose my airlines within reason, i.e. as long as the price difference is not huge.

I think I would have a go here as well, having just posted in the OW side of things... not entirely convinced that I should stay with OW after all...

(1) home airport - SIN (but might become SYD in a year or 2)
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 60-70k, mostly discount Y.
(3) types of fares bought - mostly discount Y but look for miles-accuring fares if price differences aren't large. Y+, J if prices are very cheap.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - mostly pleasure - full choice of airline and cabins.
(5) routes flown most often - SIN-SYD and SIN-HKG. Some regional travel, plus 1 big trip per year (e.g. Europe or America)
(6) current FFP status - QF gold
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? - lounge access, priority services, good redemption rates. (in that order)
(8) Preferred Airlines - none (except the few that are on my no-fly list, and they aren't in *A).

Lufthansa Miles & More sounds like a good fit. They treat SENs (100k+) really well,with good shots at op-ups, etc.

Check out OZ, A3, TK, TG.

If you fly any of them, even occasionally, that would be a good one to choose. Also, you can look at if there are credit cards in your country, etc.

Thinking about a switch away from BD. Any suggestions?

(1) What is your home airport?
PVG & SHA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy?
China Domestic: F & Y
International: C & Y

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
50,000-80,000

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
*A: BMI Diamond Club Gold
ST: KLM AF Flying Blue Platinum
ST: China Eastern Basic

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades & good award redemption

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
China domestic and transpacific

(7) Preferred Airlines
Transpacific: NH, AC, DL (will avoid UA if possible)
China Domestic: MU (CA when applicable out of PVG/SHA)

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
For work in C & F (domestic)
For personal in Y

Just investigating options here but I thank anyone who is willing to help me.

(1) What is your home airport? ABQ
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y/B/M on TATL but SLUT Domestic
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 85K in 2011 and estimating 140K easy in 2012
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? DL PM
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Frequent upgrades on travel, status matching, EU and South Africa daily schedules, good TATL prem econ & Bus class experience.

One big issue I keep fighting is the poor partnership between AF/KLM/DL in the SkyTeam Alliance. Specifically, AF/KLM do not want to honor your status on their metal, keep trying to force you to pay for Econ + upgrades, will bump you from seats for their own elites, poor IT system integration etc.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often Coast to Coast US, 3-5 EU (and increasing), South Africa 1-2x, Japan maybe 3x in 2012

(7) Preferred Airlines: Using DL but that is the point of this post. Am I better off looking at another system?

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work 98%, Can choose Airline, Alliance, and Fare for me and my firms' travel department.

(9) I would really prefer newer equipment and good maintenance over lowest cost carriers.

(10) As my handle might suggest, schedule is important. Often status can mitigate many IROP delays but an always late airline is not desired.

(11) I really appreciate customer service. Yes, sometimes I have to suck it up and fly AngryRus but I would like a smile at 5 AM and perhaps some assistance during IROP situations without feeling like I'm the cause of everything going wrong for the Airline that day.

LH M&M will be a great fit for you.
LH SEN status (Star Gold) is generally well valued in the M&M system. OP-upgrades are possible (no guarantee).
You can book exit rows upon ticketing.

Also, the higher paid classes will get you better EQM's.

Schedules are good out of FRA.

So are you suggesting that Star Alliance would be a better alternative to SkyTeam? My US travel, especially out of ABQ, would definitely not be LH metal. Are you also suggesting that I join LH anyway and then fly Star Alliance partners for my domestic US business? If so, how good is the partner integration and loyalty to each others programs?

Well, Star Alliance (LH/LX/SA) is better generally with respect to your EU / S.Africa travels. (and CO/UA/SQ/NH for US to Asia).
From ABQ you may have to connect elsewhere (e.g., PHX, LAX, SFO, Etc).

If you feel that your US Domestic flying will be much more in percentage than the international, then you can go for US or UA-CO as your choice program. With US, you will reach Chairman status, and almost always get upgraded on domestic flights.
With UA, you will reach 1K status...however, higher-fare paying elites (especially anyone on Y/B fares) will have higher priority for domestic upgrades.

If your international travel will be much higher than domestic US, then choose LH. You will get chance for international op-ups on sold-out flights, etc (especially since you are on Y/B/M fares).

If you can reach 100K miles for sure and another 50K more, then, you almost have the option to choose two programs.

LH and CO-UA have a Joint Venture. So, most fare classes earn 100%; and some of the lowest fares earn 50% on international itineraries. This is one big advantage in my opinion...because AF/KL are very stingy in giving miles to many of the lower fare classes.


On the other hand...you can reach DL Diamond with 125K miles (correct?)... Then you are top-tier there......Dont know much about DL. But the DM folks sure are happy in the DL forum!