re: What’s your airline mile program of choice?

Star Alliance (via United). Turkish is underrated, and can get you anywhere on the planet. ANA is great too, the Lufthansa FAs seem to like us big baws in business. No fuel surcharges on redemption awards like BA (British Airways, OneWorld).

Since my status has evaporated (thanks COVID), I just maintain Priority Pass for lounge access. I live in IAH (not literally, smart bros), so I don't have a lot of choices, but I will *not* short hop to DFW to fly AA to save a couple of hundred bucks on an international flight. Delta was my spirit animal when I lived in ATL, but having a hub in a town that has regular thunderstorms and lightning strikes during the warm months (ie five or six months out of the year) is not optimal. And F*&@ JFK and LGA.