GloballyServiced

Trying to make a decision on this early in the year. I am a middle of the pack frequency traveler (about 50k miles per year) and would be teetering on earning Gold with united. The bump of $6k PQD might kill me though.

I booked a Cathay pacific flight through Kayak, but apparently that put me at "L" class which doesn't get my anything on AAdvantage.

tom911

Cathay doesn't offer AA miles on discounted economy classes. You can find the earning chart here:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...hayPacific.jsp

Workaround: AA codeshare gets full miles, though may cost more.

steaminer

Been UA 1k for years, but was offered Exec Plat challenge and tempted to take it - GPU restrictions and PQD earning just make the program much worse than AA's offering

hookthem

I am 1K on an EXP match, first flights were this week. Initial thoughts:

• I really don't like MD-80's (I'll take my ERJ-175 in F)
• FA's have been much worse than UA (not flier friendly )
• Generally older, less updated fleet? Not sure this is entire true... might be limited to my routes.
• DFW is awful
• No transparency into flight status on AA.com (upgrades, standby, where is flight coming from)
• I prefer UA.bomb, though I'll book through Sabre anyway
• I have missed 1 upgrade on UA this year (out of 39 flights). I don't think my EXP upgrade % will be much better. I am typically in the higher Y refundable fares.

Headed to PUQ next month. UA's service to SCL makes it tempting to drop EXP and stay with UA. Hopefully I have good experiences to report soon!

hookthem

I would go with UA Gold over AA Plat for SDC's alone.

mattsteg

I think, to some extent, whatever is new or novel is exciting. *A has a lot of airlines, so a lot of room for new and novel, especially if you've enjoyed most of AA's partners already. You could change your list to e.g. CX in F, JL in F, EY in F, QR in J, GF in J, QF in F/J, TN/FJ for south pacific destinations etc...certainly not as deep as *A and some tough gets, but a lot of good options there too.

Enjoy all alliances/partnerships and their unique partners/coverages/routes/destinations. The best versatility is having enough miles in several programs to get the awards you seek.

nall

A lot of this is route specific. Some of those intra-Texas short hops do seem to get the really old equipment. That said, DFW is usually a great place to connect, recent weather notwithstanding.

And that information is available on AA's mobile app.

NickP 1K

Keep in mind that MD80's start phasing over to A319's and Regional jets (not E145's punishment most of us had post UA/CO merger) .

DFW for intra Texas is abysmal, for cross region/country connections, barring the few days with ice or bad tstorms it's less problematic than SFO or ORD and with the DFW Train less walking than IAH connections on UA

On AA pretty good transparency on upgrades with EF plus I do like timestamp of upgrade request taking precedence in the elite class group. Many a time on UA I was #2 with 5 seats open 2 hours prior and then I would end up as #11 with 5 seats open.... NOT had an upgrade go south on AA since making EXP ; for the few peak routes I switched last minute I GET that I would be ahead of PLAT's but all other EXP's are ahead of me as they requested prior. Never had an issue with this as it's easy to understand plus any other EXP upgrading after me goes behind me.

For Cathay mileage. Our company has a 300 USD each way policy to go to Premium or Biz class. On most CX tickets this is a no brainer that I end up with a discounted premium economy fare which is MORE than 100% on points (150%)

JonNYC

Agreed and agreed-- definitely is part of it and definitely good to have miles in the 2 different programs (at least.)

TOMFORD

Seeing as AA/US hasn't revamped any award structure, but actually added ways to earn points, I should make the switch soon. Will do after June so I get status until Feb 2017. And if they do make changes, it will probably be in the near future, in which case I can hop back to UA and maintain my status. Thanks all for the info!

Red1775

Hello,

I am a GS on UA but due to the recent economy and pressed to reduce costs I am moving to AA. I fly business and 90% international.

There are a few items I have seen that look appealing but over all curious what I might expect in this change?

Boarding, class comfort, advantages, disadvantages, entertainment, etc.

When you sit on a plane for 16 hours it is the little things that make the difference.

Mwenenzi

What routes will you fly most often?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...14-2015-a.html

Red1775

Usually, ATL-HKG or ATL-Paris or ATL to Toronto

HKG is a flight I am on at least once a month, sometimes twice. AA allows me to fly out closer to home as well.

Col Ronson

AA's 77W blows anything UA has out of the water in terms of comfort, IFE. That being said, AA's boarding process is not as streamlined as UA, meaning they dont have clearly marked lanes for each boarding group. Boarding is basically Elites, then credit card holders, than zones that do a reverse pyramid scheme which imo is not as efficient as window/middle/aisle that UA uses.

I would suggest googling "American Airlines Trip Reports" to get a general feel of what to expect. While AA's international fleet is a bit dated, they are all undergoing a refresh and when complete, will have the newest cabin of the big 3 while UA stubbornly holds on to 2-4-2 or 2-2-2 biz seating. The 777-300ER and 787s have new cabins that boast all aisle access for premium seats, something you don't see on UA. And oneworld emerald status gets you first class lounge access internationally, a perk not offered on Star or Skyteam.

I am a 1K defect from UA and while some things have taken getting used to, i'm enjoying myself. One thing i do miss from UA is their same day change policy was pretty liberal. On AA, you have to pretty much maintain the same # of stops when doing a SDC. UA also has a better smartphone app.

Red1775

UA has lost it with the 2+4+2 seating. I detest it. If you fly HKG to NWR you can get on old Continental and have 2+2+2. The crew aren't friendly and act as if they could careless. The exception would be when flying in first, the times I have done it was very nice.

I received Exec Platinum and booked well ahead of the challenge needed to retain.

Thanks for the feed back. My only regret is my point of origin to Dallas is economy only but a small price to pay for a 20 min drive to the airport verses 2 hours.