US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Which is more like Star alliance?

Well i love my usairways, and i fly US as often as possiable. If i cant fly US, i fly united or another star alliance airline. BUT, soon im going to Santiago, Chile South America, and im flying out of CLT. Every Star alliance airline i checked was very extreemly expensive and out of the way when compared to stoping once in atlanta on Delta or Dallas on American. So my question is this, where as i dont want to fly to canada before heading south, and pay three times as much, is it better to fly a Sky team(delta) or One World(American) airline. This may seem like a dumb question, buts its really a hard choice for me to make. Help!

Well i love my usairways, and i fly US as often as possiable. If i cant fly US, i fly united or another star alliance airline. BUT, soon im going to Santiago, Chile South America, and im flying out of CLT. Every Star alliance airline i checked was very extreemly expensive and out of the way when compared to stoping once in atlanta on Delta or Dallas on American. So my question is this, where as i dont want to fly to canada before heading south, and pay three times as much, is it better to fly a Sky team(delta) or One World(American) airline. This may seem like a dumb question, buts its really a hard choice for me to make. Help!

Not an easy choice. I'd say it depends on whether you have more miles banked with AA or DL. That said, AA would probably be via MIA which is a pretty troublesome place for many of us. Taking a 45 minute flight to Atlanta followed by a 9 hour long-haul to SCL is a lot easier than 1'45" to MIA and then another 8 hrs to SCL. Are you in Y, C or F? It's kind of a toss up. Anyway, enjoy Chile. It's a really nice place and the people are just super! Santiago is really smoggy but it's otherwise a nice city and the food and wine are great. Enjoy your trip!

Not sure if you checked this, but you could try flying UA into EZE, and then hopping onto a short, very scenic, and often inexpensive EZE-SCL. (LA has several flights throughout the day, in addition to AR's flights).

You could also go via GRU, and then on to SCL on RG - no need for a Brazilian visa, since you're making an international connection and can stay airside, lounge access included...

Needless to say this would involve an additional transfer.

Not sure if you checked this, but you could try flying UA into EZE, and then hopping onto a short, very scenic, and often inexpensive EZE-SCL. (LA has several flights throughout the day, in addition to AR's flights).

You could also go via GRU, and then on to SCL on RG - no need for a Brazilian visa, since you're making an international connection and can stay airside, lounge access included...

Needless to say this would involve an additional transfer.

Check the aircraft type as well. I also concur that I would go with whoever is more convenient for where you travel. I am not as familiar with OnePass, but fly Delta and Skyteam often. I prefer *Alliance though I am gold with both. If you have any kind of status with either one, on a larger plane you may have a decent chance of an operational upgrade. I flew Delta with wife to Bogota, Colombia earlier in the year, and there were many op upgrades given though we had used miles to confirm first ahead of time. We had another pax traveling with us that we tried to upgrade to no avail, but she was on low fare class. I would think living in GSP, Delta would prob have better service in your area, but it also depends where you fly to.

On the other hand, American is doing better than DL financially, so maybe they are a better choice if all else is equal.

when compared to stoping once in atlanta on Delta or Dallas on American. So my question is this, where as i dont want to fly to canada before heading south, and pay three times as much, is it better to fly a Sky team(delta) or One World(American) airline. This may seem like a dumb question, buts its really a hard choice for me to make. Help!

From all accounts avoid DL 763s. Take AA - Especially if AA use the 777 on the route. DLs 764s are a little better but still garbage. DL's financial situation also points to AA. No comparison.

I took a quick look at Orbitz (since you can search by alliance, as well as favorite airline) and there was no meaningful price difference between the Star routings and the routings with no alliance selected. They're all between $975 and $1100 (thinking $125 isn't enough to make you fly AirTran and change in ATL) for lowest economy in late September.

If you're not in economy or going at different time, all bets are off.

@:-) Now, the issue becomes 1 stop or 2. You could do CLT-IAD and IAD-GRU on United, connecting to GRU-SCL on Varig and back for $1169 including taxes in Spt., but that's 2 stops. You'll get 13690 miles for the trip, which is pretty darn good, especially if you collect an elite bonus on top of that, so that'd be my choice, but I flew a ORD-LAS-PHX-SBA yesterday to bag about 600 extra miles, so...

On the other hand, if you decide to go with one of the alliances, Delta offers non-stop service from ATL which is nice, but then you have to fly Delta. :td:
With OneWorld, you can fly AA through DFW or, better from an in-flight experience, AA to MIA and LAN on to SCL. MIA isn't so hot, but LAN has an excellent reputation although the MIA-SCL service is on a 767 which isn't their full A340 service.

No matter what, have a good time. Santiago is a great city.

Thanks everybody! Right now, having read the responces, im leaning twards AA, only because Delta operates a 767. The worst flight i have EVER taken has been on a DL767, iv never been so uncomftorable in my life! But, it would be nice flying direct from Georgia, i know the ATL airport a lot better than i do DFW.