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Why is American AAdvantage voted the best and not United Mileage Plus in this forum?

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Why is American AAdvantage voted the best and not United Mileage Plus in this forum?

 
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Old May 26, 2013, 7:55 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by chinatraderjmr
Not true. Plenty if Elites (including myself) still have 100% upgrade percentages or close to it. Some here on FT have unfortunately seen the opposite happen and they are VERY vocal making the problem ( and I'm not saying these people don't have one) much bigger then it is
???
On UA I have seen upgrade lists be 60+ people long for 8 F seats.
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Old May 26, 2013, 7:56 am
  #47  
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Originally Posted by Bttc
LFBU

Elites stopped getting upgrades on United because United started selling them to kettles for pennies.
so does AA...
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Old May 26, 2013, 8:01 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by AA_EXP09
???
On UA I have seen upgrade lists be 60+ people long for 8 F seats.
chinatraderjmr 'upgrades' himself by booking directly into C or F. If other UA elites were doing that, their 'upgrade' rates would be 100% as well.
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Old May 26, 2013, 8:43 am
  #49  
 
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Originally Posted by AA_EXP09
???
On UA I have seen upgrade lists be 60+ people long for 8 F seats.
You know I saw the same thing a week ago returning from SAN. I glanced over at the UA board and there were pages and pages of upgrade requests, not sure if there were many that hadn't applied !!!!!!!

Love AS system
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Old May 26, 2013, 9:22 am
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by burlax
AAdvantage > M+ in the following areas:

- domestic upgrades for top tier ;
- domestic upgrades for lower tiers ( e500 );
- no fare restriction on SWU ( on UA, the lowest upgradable fares are ~50% higher than the lowest available ).

M+ > AAdvantage in the following areas:

- UA route network ;
- *A route network ;
- award seat availability ;
- award routing rules.

If AAdvantage is voted better, it means that people really value upgrades.
Disagree. I value AA higher because Cathay Pacific goes to Vietnam so I only need to do 1 transfer in HK via Pacific from the US. * Alliance mostly go through Europe, so it's a lot further and most of times I'll have 1 stop in Europe, and 1 in Asia before I get to Vietnam. Same with going to other southeast asian countries, with maybe exceptions of Thailand and Sing. It gets really annoying. I also find oneworld offer more premium cabin seats.
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Old May 26, 2013, 9:25 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by oneworld82
so does AA...
AA only sells LFBUs when elites requesting upgrades have cleared (or by retaining enough seats for elites to clear at the gate). And LFBUs have a fixed cost - $45 per 500 miles. It's not a reverse-auction TOD upgrade. I don't think anyone is complaining that LFBUs have changed the elite upgrade rate.
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Old May 26, 2013, 9:28 am
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by AA_EXP09
???
On UA I have seen upgrade lists be 60+ people long for 8 F seats.
I routinely see 30+ people on the AA list DFW-LGA on a S80. But never 60+.
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Old May 26, 2013, 9:28 am
  #53  
 
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Originally Posted by yyzgayguy
Air Canada offers more nonstops from my city but their Scamcharges (which they fraudulently call "fuel" charges) make Aeroplan very significantly more expensive.
Sounds a lot like BA's and Iberia's "Scamcharges" (i.e., most ways to use AAdvantage miles to travel to Europe).
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Old May 26, 2013, 9:48 am
  #54  
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Originally Posted by oneworld82
so does AA...
Big difference in what UA is now doing with this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...iscussion.html

Don't believe AA has lowered themselves to that level yet
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Old May 26, 2013, 11:28 am
  #55  
 
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Originally Posted by chinatraderjmr
Not true. Plenty if Elites (including myself) still have 100% upgrade percentages or close to it. Some here on FT have unfortunately seen the opposite happen and they are VERY vocal making the problem ( and I'm not saying these people don't have one) much bigger then it is
As a 1K, my upgrade ratio went from near 100% on pre-merger UA to >25% post-merger. I'd call that a problem, not an exaggeration. Since the merger, elite upgrades have been a UA problem except on premium fares and for non-hub cities. A United exec acknowledged this to me. They made a decision to chase short-term revenue over elite loyalty. The result? Thousands of UA elites, myself included, abandoned UA.

Since moving my business to AA more than a year ago, my upgrade ratio is again comparable to the pmUA days. Best travel decision I ever made: AA is better on every metric important to me. They deserve the best of awards and earned my significant travel spend.
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Old May 26, 2013, 12:52 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by gtu2004
Disagree. I value AA higher because Cathay Pacific goes to Vietnam so I only need to do 1 transfer in HK via Pacific from the US. * Alliance mostly go through Europe, so it's a lot further and most of times I'll have 1 stop in Europe, and 1 in Asia before I get to Vietnam. Same with going to other southeast asian countries, with maybe exceptions of Thailand and Sing. It gets really annoying. I also find oneworld offer more premium cabin seats.
So NH/OZ/UA aren't in *A?
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Old May 26, 2013, 2:40 pm
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by sanfran767
Sounds a lot like BA's and Iberia's "Scamcharges" (i.e., most ways to use AAdvantage miles to travel to Europe).
Yes it does. So for Award travel to Europe, I fly AA which doesn't charge Scamcharges. For SE Asia, I fly AA or CX, which don't. Got it covered.
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Old May 26, 2013, 3:07 pm
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by sanfran767
Not entirely missing the point, which is that travel on AA out of SFO to its hubs can be thin as well. Hub goes both ways, right? :-)

Agree on sticking with hub carriers at this point--lesson learned (albeit the hard way)!
No, hubs don't go both ways. Hubs are loosely defined as a high concentration of flights for a particular carrier, servicing several "feeders." It wouldn't be reasonable to expect a hub/feeder airport with three flights a day to have a large number of upgrades/awards. (I'm exagerating the number of flights, not stating it is empirical for SFO/MIA.)

Joel
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Old May 26, 2013, 3:27 pm
  #59  
 
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I personally find it harder than ever to book on AA Awards for upper classes

I tenaciously save my AA miles so that I have the 125k i need to book first class NYC- LON on AA saver fare.

In the past it was wicked easy to book . Reasonable availability of flights on American itself and not its code shares (BA etc) and could do so months in advance of the flight dates.

(I prefer AA first to BA for a number of reasons). But as of the last year or so I find:

1) AA Saver fares are hard to find more than 1 month or so in advance (closer to flight time they may open up but even so mostly code shares)

2) the OPTIONS are mostly CODE SHARES with BA which I am not looking for ( i prefer AA first to BA first

Is this something new (ive been out of it for about 1 year or so ) and is there a way to find more Actual AA flights direct to LON at the miles saver rates?

guidance appreciated.
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Old May 26, 2013, 4:51 pm
  #60  
 
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Originally Posted by bobforcfo:20815113
I tenaciously save my AA miles so that I have the 125k i need to book first class NYC- LON on AA saver fare.

In the past it was wicked easy to book . Reasonable availability of flights on American itself and not its code shares (BA etc) and could do so months in advance of the flight dates.

(I prefer AA first to BA for a number of reasons). But as of the last year or so I find:

1) AA Saver fares are hard to find more than 1 month or so in advance (closer to flight time they may open up but even so mostly code shares)

2) the OPTIONS are mostly CODE SHARES with BA which I am not looking for ( i prefer AA first to BA first

Is this something new (ive been out of it for about 1 year or so ) and is there a way to find more Actual AA flights direct to LON at the miles saver rates?

guidance appreciated.
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