alaska airlines as a helpful backup program

my friend was recently looking at booking a flight on klm / delta for their upcoming trip to tanzania. he's a star alliance kind of guy, and so flying skyteam seemed to be just out of character. what does one do in this case? certainly, i try to consolidate all of my flying onto one alliance so as to achieve status within a particular program. even if i didn't earn any status, i would still try to consolidate my points into a single program so that i could redeem for actual flights. a few hundred miles here and there in different programs are useless -- they're very much appropriately called orphan miles. in my friend's case, he consolidated absolutely everything into air canada's aeroplan.

so what does one do if you have to book onto skyteam partners? my practice has been to create an account with each of the alliances to credit points there. i currently have accounts with american airlines (AA, oneworld) and delta (DL, skyteam) so that i can credit those miles there. it's helpful because these points don't expire (as long as there is activity within 18 months for AA, and in the case of DL, miles do not expire). if i didn't have a whole bunch of miles on AA, i would definitely be looking into alaska airlines (AS).

AS has a very similar mileage earning and spending rate (aka earn and burn rate, respectively) as what you would expect on the other major north american airlines. but here are some of the benefits of consolidating your points into the alaska mileage plan:

1. AS partners with many airlines within different alliances without being in a major alliance itself.
• star alliance partners: nil
• oneworld: american airlines, cathay pacific, british airways, lan, quantas
• skyteam: delta airlines, korean airlines, klm, air france
• other: air pacific, era alaska, pen air (alaska), iceland air (partnership ending june 30, 2013)
2. earning elite status
• miles earned from AA and DL count towards status on alaska (and, for that matter, flights earned on alaska count as status miles on AA and DL). 
• benefits of mvp status (their elite tiers) will allow for some benefits on AA and DL. this includes checked baggage fee waivers, pre-boarding, and in the case of DL, upgrades.
3. miles don't expire as long as you have activity every 24 months
4. it's not that difficult to earn miles on actual alaska airline flights as a canadian
• alaska focuses on vancouver as a focus canadian city. they do this by having multiple flights departing from bellingham, a mere hour's drive away from vancouver. no other legacy airline flies out of bellingham.

once i deplete my AA points, i will open up an AS account as a part of my mileage strategy. star alliance partners will still be credited towards asiana airlines. partners of alaska will be credited to alaska. skyteam or oneworld partners who aren't credited to alaska will be credited as orphan miles to AA or DL. i don't expect much to happen as i rarely fly outside the star alliance, but just in case, it's nice to make sure that no mile goes to waste.