uastarflyer

And AA even calls them 500-milers (and sticks with that far better approach) and still calls them SWU. What my UA used to be.

COdbaUA elite choice at 75k will be what - a $75 voucher to be used as payment on a $300 change fee?

lax2010

I don't think you can apply the $75 voucher to the change fee. They are only good for V fare and above ;-).

mgcsinc

Isn't the "COdbaUA elite choice at 75k" called Platinum status?

787fan

AFTER you pay the change fee from new funds, then you can use the voucher to pay your third or more checked bag, but only when traveling alone

lax2jfk2lax

On a somewhat tangential result -- I haven't been to AA's website in awhile. Kudos to their design team; the Elite Rewards page is clean, concise, and functional. Love it.

I immediately thought the same thing. AA seems to WANT to be the worlds largest and best airline.

787fan

Wouldn't it be ironic that US+AA will be the largest by pax number, but yet still have fewer destinations than either DL or UA ?

Same reason I don't fly WN - they're huge, low-cost, and customer friendly, but can't get me where I want to go.

ClayPot

AA is in the position UA was a few years ago. But AA seems to be approaching it with a completely different attitude then UA.

demkr

you should eat your Jeff McMuffin and love it! Thanks for your loyalty!

In all seriousness, just looking at the webpage graphic design shows creativity while COdbaUA is stuck in 1998.

CodbaUA has a 50% bonus PQM offer now, but it's a targeted offer

greathustle

Guys... am I missing something? I know it's de rigueur to bag on any and all things UA on this board. And I'm not necessarily disagreeing with that posture-- I am on the record here (prior to this news) as finding AA's service and attitude today superior to what I get as a UA 1K... but isn't this basically just AA catching up to UA's giving VFFs extra CR1s every 25k miles and SWUs every 50k? I know the new AA deal also offers club passes and free RDMs, but come on, the SWUs are the obvious choice -- which is basically equivalent to what UA has offered for some time. Anyway please clue me in here.

channa

AA's SWUs are less restrictive than UA's.

150K UA gets you:
- 8 Regionals
- 8 GPU (which are restricted to W and up)

150K AA would get (assuming you pick SWUs whenever possible)
- 15 SWU (8 + 1 + 2 + 4) which are valid on any fare
- 10K bonus miles (or other selection at Tier 1)

Also in these things, one should look at the overall package. EXPs tend to report solid unlimited upgrade rates, and combine with the above SWUs, better/more empowered CS and systems that do things more efficiently.

spin88

lets see, AA's SWUs are valid on ANY fare, usually confirm at time of booking as space is made available. UAL's require a W fare (usually about $800 more RT than available lower fares) and since UA does not open up R (even with almost unfilled C cabin) can't be confirmed at booking and usually only open up,if all, at the gate.

So AA give you 8 bottles of Dom at 100K miles, UA gave you 6 bottles of ripple at 100K miles. Now AA is giving you more Dom, UA is giving you the same old shot at ripple (when you have not been able to drink the stuff you already have).

Clear enough?

uastarflyer

Good call!

That would have to be in the fine print. The new ticket has to be far more cost than the residual of your original ticket less any change fee, service fee or booking fee. Then the voucher applies.

AA is doing elements of what UA could have done leveraging United Mileage Plus (2 words not one) from pre-merger.

Instead AA continues to innovate and COdbaUA pisses it away.

greathustle

Yup, fare class restrictions etc. etc. I get all of that. That's a separate issue from AA's new benefits. Just like how I'm considering it's a separate issue that UA SWUs are far more valuable than AA SWUs if your goal is to fly to many common TPAC destinations.

For the 150k example given below, I could give the 200k example, or the 250k example, where UA's years-old scheme would provide significantly more upgrade certs.

The point of my first post was to understand why so many posters here are viewing this new AA program as something UA hasn't done, and needs to match. Still not getting it. Also, still not asking whether one program is better than the other "overall" (whatever that means).

unavaca

Are we still going on about e500s here? When they took them away, most of the whining was about old timers not getting them converted to 500 RDMs (which was never a benefit I got as a "newbie"). As a premier who gets more upgrades under UDU as a 1K (and as a gold in 2011), I'm much happier with the UDU scheme.

pigx5

It's not new AA benefits.
They have these choice rewards before and they continue doing it.
It was pmUA's benefits but COdbaUA decides not to do it anymore.

Would you mind to share how many miles you fly a year?
How many people will fly more than 200k a year?

Maybe COdbaUA should change the benefits to
1K ONLY get 2 SWUs instead of 6 but when they reach 200K, they will get 12 instead of only 10 now.
When they reach 300K, they will get 16 instead of 14 now.
or
change the Gold benefit to 25% bonus miles but when you reach 200,000 miles, you will get 150% bonus
after that.
or
change the 1K upgrade window to 24 hr and once you reach 300K a year, your upgrade window will be at booking
with any fare while Ua won't release any confirm upgrade space.


Then you can say " I don't get it, the benefits are actually better and why those 1Ks/Golds complain?"
If you do think it's better, I think I should get a job at Mileage Plus.