The long game with can actually be your advantage if you can somehow make it to get Million Miler status with UA, while meeting the annual 10K PQP (which will most likely rise at some point). Within *A, TK would be my recommendation as it is a milage based program (depending on fare class of course), and you seem to really want *G benefits. With 70K annually, you should easily requalify for *G as their program requires 40K to qualify for their Elite status in the first year and then 60K in the subsequent two-year requalification period. Beware that TK is not always known for great customer service, but I haven't had too many issues myself. Please check out the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles thread for more info, and good luck!

Required amount of miles for TK M&S Elite status renewal is 37.500 miles in two years. Alternatively if you make 25K in the first year of requalification period you're already good.

I agree M&S is a nice program but for someone living in the US spending the miles might be a bit hard.

Plus not all of those UA and LH/LX flights will earn you miles at 100% rate. For the European flights you can consider TK.

Like the poster above, I also recommend checking the program details like earning charts from other *A carriers.

Safak Thanks for the correction! Somehow, I got the Elite Plus requalification number mixed in there.

I guessed so. But not to make the whole thing even more complicated I didn't mention it.

Thanks both! Mostly confirms my thoughts.

I probably should have mentioned, my GF does have M&S status and keeping it isn't too hard. Annoyingly we got close to Elite Plus once but didn't make it, and the TK cabin upgrade certs might have been a useful perk on an SFO-IST flight. Oh well...
But redeeming miles and the TK award charts have definitely been less favorable. (At least with OZ I've had decent luck with a few *A upgrade awards, and their award chart has been decent but OZ is picky with US cards and I couldn't actually book a recent award ticket...)

So, I guess where I'm at:

- TK should be easy for me to maintain
- TK won't help as much for earning on LH/LX PE routes (upcoming trip would likely be an LX N fare which is 0% on TK... though I have had luck with switching the mileage program at the LX/LH lounge when this happened once where I credited to UA...)
- TK's award chart has mixed value, but there are some decent options, like potential UA flights
- UA Gold would definitely be more useful for me locally, but probably harder to maintain
- Highly SFO specific, but the Maple Leaf Lounge works with *A Gold, but specifically not UA Gold—and they usually have a barista and/or a good mezcal Negroni. :D
- Getting lifetime UA status for require moving more international flying to UA, which isn't a problem but other *A partners have better PE and upgrade deals. It's also a stretch.

The easy answer is to credit to UA, not over think things and not encourage extra upgrades/etc. Or not care so much about status! But who am I kidding? I love playing the game.

While not my usual style to recommend NZ, but in this case you could consider having NZ as you are based in SYD?
The SYD-SIN-(FRA)-JFK routing in F would give you NZ*G for a year. It helps with the occasional intra NZ flights as it is typically Y only and with NZ*G you get lounge plus space+ seating. Plus there are some sweet spots for *A redemption using NZ, as a lot of intra-EU and intra-US flights can be redeemed at low Airpoints $ rates. Some AU-Asia flights can also be quite good, for example MEL-BKK in J is 1000 Airpoints Dollar only)

Given that you're flying 70K each year, could it be an option to pursue both TK and UA statuses?

You mentioned changing FF before the flight. So if you've a flight with 0 earning for TK you can play this trick. In the short term you can earn and then keep TK status. In the long term you can reach the desired status with UA.

This split would require extra attention and you need to monitor your requalification earnings with TK to make a decision between TK and UA in some cases.

(1) What is your home airport? BHX, although LHR is our preferred for long haul.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy for short haul, PE for long.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? No more than 4,000 miles a year but this might be going up some what in the next couple of years.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BA bronze and Flying blue Silver.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Points that don't expire, free seat selection (ideally) at the time of booking and lounge access.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Europe, North America.
(7) Preferred Airlines? None
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Fully leisure so I pay for all my flights either cash or points.

I've been doing research trying to figure out which *A scheme is right for me and could do with some help. I'm almost certain UA is the way to go for my situation but wanted to ask in case I've missed something?

Me and my partner are due to go to Frankfurt later this year with LH. Next year, we are going to Las Vegas followed by Toronto (BA going, Virgin return) maybe using Air Canada in between?
After that I hope to go to Chicago and then Indianapolis using LH for the former (return) to fly on a 747, a lifelong dream and again maybe another *A partner in between. We have plenty of ideas, it's just getting round to booking it and more importantly, funding it all. We always have a checked bag between us and our budget only allows up to PE for long haul unless I can find a really good deal otherwise for business class.
I don't have a problem with connecting flights, although I've never done one yet but my partner is very much against them where possible. She wants direct flights only unless the savings are substantial.

Points that don't expire is VERY important to me as I don't travel enough as I'd like to make use of them over the short term but having a pot for a little weekend break somewhere would be nice. Status would also be nice but not essential as I have a credit card that allows lounge access with PP attached to it.

I've looked at Aegean and I'm not sure what activity would keep the points alive, also, 4 flights (at least) with them to gain or maintain status isn't feasible for me.

Thank you all for any advice.

Moved from Atlanta to Baltimore. Was Delta Plat, now will be flying American or Southwest (DCA or BWI) for my domestic travel, but going to Dulles for my INT'L trips. Would like non-expiring miles. Have an Amex Plat so being a transfer partner would be a plus but not a deal breaker. Would love someone I can status match into to get Star Gold. Flight patterns go between Economy, Premium Economy and Business. 4-6 flights per year - most in business or PE. For instance, this year:

2 Business flights to Middle East
1 PE flight to Europe
1 coach flight to Middle East

Thanks for any help.

This does not add up. BA and FB Silver and just 4k miles a year? Do you mean 40k miles?
UA status earns per dollar spent and for Gold (which is the only meaningful status to shoot for) you will need $10k and segments or $12k. That's a lot of PE tickets to get there and you'll need 4 segments on UA, but that sounds doable for you. Yes, UA miles do not expire and they are a reasonable value compared to other programs.
So maybe report back on the 4k miles situation, else I am at a loss what to recommend here

Ugh, that's not easy. IAD and a few long haul business class calls for UA. Miles do not expire. No Amex transfer though. Can you do UA Gold and then e.g. AS Gold to get benis on AA? AS is great for AA flying where you get preferred seats and even upgrades. Might take some spreadsheet work to see if you can get both UA and AS Gold (that one at least is still mileage-based and might be good for your domestic flying out of DCA)

Apologies, I was going by an average of miles since my first flight 11 years ago. If I look back over the last 4 years where my travel plans have increased significantly, I average around 8,000 miles a year. 1 trip to north America and a few trips to Europe either side of the former.

I gained BA silver status a couple of years ago, making use of the old system and double points for BA holidays with a small tier point run also. I matched this to FB gold last year but I have now soft landed to bronze and silver respectively as I haven't reached the requirements of either to maintain it.

I hope this clears things up and thank you for your advice.

i do not see any reasonable scenario where you could earn status with 8k miles per year. So gaining lounge access or anything else isn’t going to work out,