IMH Thank you! I will look at UA Mileage Plus, I fly to USA 1-3 times a year so it should not be a big problem.

Knowing that makes me even more inclined to recommend UA. The main disadvantage compared with having *G from a European airline is that you won't get lounge access when flying within N. America, but I'd say that E+ and upgrade opportunities when you do fly UA more than make up for that.

Be sure to read the programm terms and conditions (and in particular to check the earning rates for your most likely carriers and class(-es) of travel) before making a final decision!

I will be moving to DXB soon, planning to travel extensively around the region, and to Europe from time to time.

There seem to be no *A airlines based in Dubai, but I still want to join a *A FFP for the eventual flight to Europe.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
DXB

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Y mostly

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
I will do >50k the next year, around 30k with *A airlines

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
No

(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.)
Award redemption for family, to travel from BCN to DXB

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Middle east from DXB

I'm trying to determine which *A FF scheme to join, but I'm also open to joining a Skyteam or Oneworld FF scheme if you guys think it would be a better fit.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say. :)

To answer the questions from the initial post:
(1) What is your home airport?
Currently, it's OSL. However, we're considering moving to Singapore, so then it would be SIN. For the rest of this post, I'll assume we're moving to Singapore as that seems most likely.

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
I usually buy the cheapest economy fares I can find that fit with my schedule.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
On average, somewhere between 15K and 25K, but that will likely bump up to 25K to 35K.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
No, but I have approximately 40,000 United Mileage Plus miles

(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 on travel and lounge access are the most important to me.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Our family consists of an American (me) from the southeast, a Norwegian (my wife), and our son. As a result, we will fly at least once a year from SIN to the southeast (either ATL or SAV) and from SIN to OSL. Outside of those two yearly trips, most of our travel will likely be long weekend type getaways within Asia.

(7) Preferred Airlines
I don't have any strong preferences.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Currently, almost all of our traveling is for pleasure, but it would not be completely unexpected to have some work related travel as well. We can choose airlines and class of service.

Stick with UA or other FFP. Don't bother with SQ Krisflyer as miles do expire, but they do have the odd 50% award promo which is sometimes worth it. Forget about upgrades on SQ.

Thanks for the reply. I had looked at Krisflyer, but it just didn't seem like a very attractive program. Is there some level at which Krisflyer actually makes some sense to pick or will another *A carrier always be a better pick?

The regular Krisflyer (not PPS, which is good for premium fares double dipping) is indeed relatively bad. However, some advantages come in mind:

You do now (since very recent) earn miles on even the cheapest SQ fares, as well as on Silk Air flights (which don't earn you any on *A) - and with status, you do have benefits when travelling on Silk Air too.

So, if your company, for example, forces you to fly a lot with SQ and Silk Air in cheap eco fares, it might make sense to collect on their programs. For lounge access, a *G status from another program will be useful, of course.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
LAX, but I will probably move to Bejing or NYC
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
now 20k, but will double from next year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
none
(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.)
upgrade on travel and free lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
U.S~China
(7) Preferred Airlines
NOT air china
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
both

Welcome to FlyerTalk, webgogo!

You're not making it easy for us. ;)

Seriously, I suspect people will offer different answers depending on (i) which home city you decide on; (ii) which origin and destination cities in China and the US are most important to you, (iii) the remainder of your likely flying schedule (e.g. US domestic, China domestic).

Can you help us a little?

thank you for your response;)
1I will probably be living in LA for one year or two. So, for the 1st question, LAX
2LAX
3LAX to Beijing

Now that I went back and looked at where SQ flies (as opposed to either SQ or Silk) from SIN, it makes me question if I even should be with Star Alliance. It seems like it will be very difficult to pick up Star Alliance miles on any of the shorter regional flights. So, do you (everyone, not just Yurop) think it would make more sense to look at Oneworld or Skyteam? Or would it be better to stay with Star Alliance, but simply take Jetstar or Tiger for the short regional flights?

(1) What is your home airport?
CAN
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Y (usually the discount fares)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
<25k international travel, domestic travel 15-20segments
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
AF/KL FB SILVER (easy to maintain when I don't travel internationally, 15 segments to attain Silver which is good in China as distances aren't far)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority ground service: check-in, boarding, preferred seating, lounge access, easy to maintain Star Gold, miles that don't expire would be a bonus
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
China domestic (for that I use CZ), once or twice a year travel to either US/Africa or Europe, maybe more than one region.
(7) Preferred Airlines
Asia(TG,SQ) US(UA) Africa (ET) Europe (no preference)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
For work, yes I can choose my airlines but sometimes it would depend on schedules and ultimately the price.

I have a trip coming up in June for work, to the US and South America, I would've preferred to stick with SkyTeam but I would barely earn any miles on DL due to FB's poor earning scheme and I find myself having to fly Star once in a while so I might as well go for Gold this trip.

United/ANA
CAN-NRT
NRT-IAH
IAH-PTY

By the time I leave I hope AV/TA and CM would have joined Star so that I can try to book as many local flights with them but otherwise I will be forced with LAN. I plan to be in Chile, Argentina, Brazil.

EWR-NRT
NRT-CAN

With traveling less than 25k a year, probably only OZ and A3 will give you *G. A3's miles don't expire once you reach Blue/Gold, OZ's miles expire after 7 to 10 years, which is also pretty good!

Figured it would be A3, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anyone else.

Is there anyone out there that offers lifetime status after reaching a specific threshold? What are the requirements?

If lifetime status is what you after, I would suggest OZ, 500k *A miles. A3's program is too new to *G, no one really reached the 3 year re-qualification point yet, it's still seem too easy to maintain the status with activity. And 20k *G is also too easy, not sure how long it's gonna stay this way...

But since you are in China, if you can tolerate CA, their status is at 1 million km on CA metal, also very generous.