Boogie711

Well - in the next few days, I have to book a trip to Asia and two trips to Africa. At the moment, I have 1P status with United, and the equivalent (Plat) with AA. I'm not going to make both this year.

I'm tossing back and forth - Star Alliance versus OW. I'm really torn.

Pros of Star:
Better redemptions (no BA surcharges)
Easier lounge access (I'm in Canada, so every flight is international.)
Route network, especially in Africa

Pros of OW
Better airlines. This is a big one. Cathay Pacific is great, BA & Qantas are solid.
AA treats their elites better.
Local airport (Kitchener) is only serviced by AA. Otherwise its a 1hour (YYZ) or 2 hour (BUF) drive.
The big one - Premium Economy on a LOT of airlines, that earn 1.5* on points. At 6'4", the extra legroom is a big deal.

Cons of Star
United & Smisek.
Total lack of domestic upgrade potential

Cons of OW
Big hole in the route networks (Africa and Canada, two appreciable markets for me.)
BA redemption surcharges
No easy lounge access options domestically

I really did have my heart set on switching to AA, but now I'm really quite torn - and it's soon going to be decision day.

Thoughts? My flights are a mix of domestic North America and International (a few are purely domestic within Canada, not enough to really worry about I guess.) So maybe the lounge access isn't a big deal...

Ugh. Am I missing anything? Should I just suck it up and continue on with UA? I'm only looking at 200k lifetime miles so it's not like I'm approaching a milestone.

aacharya

Is it all or nothing for 1P or Platinum? Meaning can you make, for example, Platinum on both UA/AA?

PERRL

Can you let us know:
1) How often you redeem miles where the BA surcharge matters.
2) How often you travel on the better OW airlines vs. AA.
3) How much you mind driving to a UA-serviced airport.
4) How often you travel within Canada on a non-Tango fare.
5) How much the extra 500 miles via Kitchener both ways helps you out.
Etc, etc.

If it were me, having to drive an hour or more extra for every trip both ways would trump pretty much everything else....

Cargojon

Doesnt BA have decent Africa coverage?

mduell

Primarily use OW. Fly Air Canada for Canada and Air Canada/Lufthansa/Swiss/etc for Africa crediting to Agean for easy *G.

Boogie711

I think that may be the answer... hook up with an easy *G for backup and just move on.

And Cargojon - no. BA flies TO Africa, but there's no point-to-point coverage.

With ET, MS or SAA, I can go from CAI to JNB to EBB, or anywhere else. With BA, I'd have to go via LHR. The only inter-African travel that BA has that I'm aware of is some small regional routes out of Johannesburg.

keisari

I thought LOT was part of *A and not OW

JVPhoto

OP was using LOT as there are a few more airlines who offer Premium Econ and not LOT the Polish airline.

tom911

Will you fly enough with whatever alliance you select to get in 100K? At AA, that would give you first class international lounge access on any fare, including award tickets, and systemwides good on any fare (no buy-ups). Think of first class lounges in Sydney, Hong Kong or London which are much better than any U.S. lounge.

One thing you didn't seem to address is how you're going to accrue these miles (clearly you intend to use them as you commented on the BA fuel surcharges). At AA in 2015, as a Platinum/50K flyer, you'll be earning 100% plus 100% bonus miles on AA metal/codeshares, though you do have to be very careful when booking partners under their flight numbers to make sure you're not in a discounted class that doesn't accrue miles, or very little miles. BA flights accrue full miles.

How will you be impacted come March with UA's new revenue based accrual system? Compare your One World routes to Star Alliance routes. Which will bring in the most miles after the new UA game plan is implemented? Have you done a side-by-side comparison? This would seem like a major deciding factor. If they're $10,000 tickets I'd expect it to tilt in UA's direction.

If you don't see a lot of positive in the new UA system for you, I can't see the point in hanging around for March 1 to arrive.

How does West Jet fit in there? Do they serve the Canadian airports you'd need to fly to?
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...es/westjet.jsp

LarkSFO

re: Aegean Gold

The End of Lifetime Star Alliance Gold Disaster is Confirmed, Here’s What to Expect from a New Program

mduell

Not as comically easy as it once was, but still the lowest threshold for *G.

EnvoyBoy

Indeed, about Cathay, BA and Qantas.

But StarA has SQ, LH, LX, SA.

I guess it depends in which cabin you fly. I'd put SA airlines up against OW airlines any day but that's only from a J/F perspective. Can't compare econ products.

blug

While CX, BA, QF are decent airlines, if you are flying Y, you'll probably be better off in UA E+ vs. the 31' pitch of those carriers.

Kacee

*A has some great carriers, including in addition TK, NH, NZ, OZ, and TG.

But I would venture that CX is currently the best alliance partner in the world. State of the art long-haul J, fantastic F, best AVOD (along with SQ) in the industry, incredible home base hub with great lounges, and probably the most predictable and generous award availability of any top tier airline.

SQ, by contrast, is a terrible alliance partner. LH still has angle-flat seat J in much of its fleet, and it's "new" J is not close to state of the art. And LX releases no F to alliance partners.

But CX and BA have PE, which OP specifically referenced as a point in favor of OW. UA E+ can't compare to a true PE product.

lhrsfo

My reading of the OP's post is that the only two major disadvantages of OW to him are intra-Africa flights (out of the way but Qatar might be an answer) and BA fuel surcharges. Otherwise the equation goes OW's way.

The coming MP changes mean that I've reconciled myself to far fewer redemptions so I now focus on comfort and convenience for the $$ I'm prepared to spend.