Leaving AA, looking for a new flyer program - how is US?

 
Old Jun 8, 2010, 8:55 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: San Diego
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Posts: 86
Leaving AA, looking for a new flyer program - how is US?

We are leaving AA flyer program (after members for 10years) due to Marriott not renewing their contract with AA In January we finally reached Elite status with AA.

It is now down to Con or US. Most of our miles are earned thru Marriott points transfer, we fly FC for our vacations twice a year to Hawaii and Cancun (our home is SAN). Planning in the the next three years vacationing in Europe. I joined US a few days ago I like their website, easy to navigate and looks like flight availability is good for our vacation trips. My question is how are their planes, customer service, on time schedule, connections, etc.?

Any resources, input will be greatly appreciated.

SD
California Traveler is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 9:05 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PHL
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Personally, I love US but you will find many others who do not. My home is in PHL and it is a good gateway to major European cities. As a CP, my upgrade percentage is excellent, even with a companion.
apeortdz is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 9:24 am
  #3  
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Continental's a better airline and has better F (in the sense that their domestic F is probably closest to AA domestic F in terms of quality, which is what you'll be experiencing if you're flying F to HNL and CUN); US probably has a better FF program (due to their frequent mileage promotions where you can acquire miles for less than 1 cent per mile), though CO's is pretty good.

I stopped flying HP regularly once it merged with US. My experiences have involved a fair number of planes that are late, dirty of have mechanical issues, enough that I haven't seen a need to change that.

Alaska Airlines ranked highest in overall satisfaction among traditional carriers for the third year in a row, followed by Continental and American. US Airways was at the bottom of the list.
Both airlines have free domestic upgrades for elites (CO likely has more competition for upgrade), but it sounds like you are simply doing vacation travel and upgrades based on elite status are less important to you.
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Old Jun 8, 2010, 12:53 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Tampa, FL
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I think it's all about what is convenient. I've been in and out of US for years, and had probably 10+ years of CP status. I've seen the good and bad, and just about every b.s. line any airline will throw out there. But for my situation, US is convenient for where I live and travel. By no means the best F product out there, the clubs leave a good bit to be desired, but they're close to me, and over the past year the upgrades as a CP have been easy (even on a last minute booking). With the other airlines I've tried, I've learned 2 valuable lessons; 1. as soon as you think they know what they're doing, the bottom will fall out or they will do something stupid, and 2. don't inconvenience yourself for a particular brand.
fishintheobx is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 1:06 pm
  #5  
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Thumbs up The Pride of America!!

US is a World Class Airline, with the prospect in the next few years to become "The World's Flag Carrier"! However there will be but a few Chairman's who may disagree.:-::-::-::-::-:
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Old Jun 9, 2010, 9:55 am
  #6  
 
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Originally Posted by gkbiiii
US is a World Class Airline, with the prospect in the next few years to become "The World's Flag Carrier"! However there will be but a few Chairman's who may disagree.:-::-::-::-::-:
Whatever it is you're smoking or taking, I want some................
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Old Jun 9, 2010, 10:46 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by follonica2
Whatever it is you're smoking or taking, I want some................
pass it my way too
enviroian is offline  
Old Jun 9, 2010, 12:25 pm
  #8  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Originally Posted by gkbiiii
US is a World Class Airline, with the prospect in the next few years to become "The World's Flag Carrier"! However there will be but a few Chairman's who may disagree.:-::-::-::-::-:
I really hope that's sarcasm... I see from the profile this is not a US FF. Otherwise, the meds must be working.
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Old Jun 9, 2010, 2:54 pm
  #9  
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Well, to put it into perspective for you....

I'm a PHL resident and was a long time US flyer. I defected to AA a few years ago and love it. Their service out of PHL requires connecting at DFW and ORD mostly, but that doesn't really bother me. I'm only 200K away from lifetime gold too.

My observations:

1.) US upgrade policy - while generous by giving "free unlimited" upgrades to all 4 tiers - often leaves the lower tiers with very little chance.

2.) The boarding process is annoying without the Priority AAccess line. I love being able to come out of the club, or take my time getting to the gate, and saunter onto the red carpet without fighting the hoards of gate lurkers.

3.) First class service is above and beyond USAirways. The meals. The glassware (US still serves drinks in plastic cups).

4.) Wifi - US has finally put WiFi into their whole A321 fleet, which is nice. AA is moving along well with their MD80 fleet and I think 737's too.

5.) In seat power - US turned all their in-seat power outlets off a few years ago when they removed their in flight entertainment systems to save weight/conserve fuel. AA has in seat power at all F seats in their mainline fleet, and at select coach seats that I can always select in advance. AA also has IFE on flights of varying lengths. You will be without any audio/video entertainment or in-seat power on every single domestic USAirways flight you take, including caribbean trips.

6.) Award redemption - US makes it very hard (and expensive) to redeem for travel on their own metal. But the Star Alliance is a great network, especially with CO in it now. Generally, I find *A stronger than OW in terms of options.

7.) Status match - US won't match your status, but they will let you pay for *ANY* level of elite, and also pay for a status match to some levels.

8.) I guess with the pending FA and Mechanic strike, AA customers have been feeling some negative vibes from the frontline staff. But be advised that there are more than a few reports here about very lazy and downright nasty front line folks at US due to the ongoing labor integration issues and an uncaring management. Don't let the name fool you - the company is still two very distinct airlines - USAirways and America West.
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Old Jun 9, 2010, 4:00 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
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If most of your miles come from Marriott points transfers then you're probably not flying much, maybe enough to reach Silver if any status at all. So the status upgrades are probably not a benefit that would be meaningful. If most of the travel is booked as award travel then you're not really going to be a hub captive and can fly any airline that services your airport.

With that in mind, the question really is "how much time do you want to spend looking for your award travel and how much help do you expect?" Redemption rates for US on US metal are either really cheap or really obscene, and never in between; CO's seem to be a little more sane but still not precisely "cheap." The advantage to flying on the same carrier that issued the miles is that it is easy to book online. The Continental site itself is not too user-friendly for more advanced routing though. Continental will show you some LIMITED selections on partner airlines on their website. Redemption on partner airlines is higher on CO than on US, which makes US more attractive, however US will not show you any partner availability on its website, leaving you to do the work. If you know how to do it and where to look, you can find some stellar partner awards for US mileage at pretty attractive rates. But it does take some homework and it can be frustrating at times.

If you plan to redeem the awards with the airline that issued the miles, then CO is probably the way to go. Their first class to Hawaii is a lot nicer than US' and they have more choices when going to Europe. If you don't mind the homework, and don't care which carrier you fly, then US is the way to go, as their Star Alliance awards are really the best part of the DM program.
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Old Jun 10, 2010, 8:35 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
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As others have stated take a close look at award redemtion policies and possibly milage upgrade policies. I do not know what CO's policy is regarding mileage upgrades from other carriers but with US it is a NO. Since you will not be flying for mile what is the difference onther that redemption rates. Which leads me to ask why not keep the points in Marriot and get a air hotel package as needed for the carrier needed.
swanscn is offline  
Old Jun 10, 2010, 8:49 am
  #12  
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Thank you all for your great responses. Since we can transfer miles from Marriott to both CO & US and fly F it looks like we will use US for domestic and CO for Intl. Will check out CO for our Hawaii trips. I love doing the research for reward miles and will keep looking since the next flight will be 2012 - then our AA miles are all out. We already have 2011 booked with AA. So I do have time to make a decision, looks like we have flexability in our airline choices. We are just spoiled with AA flying all over the world, never had a problem getting intl F with BA.

Thanks,
SD
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Old Jun 10, 2010, 10:40 am
  #13  
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Since we can transfer miles from Marriott to both CO & US and fly F it looks like we will use US for domestic and CO for Intl. Will check out CO for our Hawaii trips.
I would actually do the exact opposite of what you're doing- fly CO for domestic (which will become UA by 2012, by the way), redeem in US Dividend Miles for international, and be fairly agnostic in which FF program you do it in, as long as US isn't in Chapter 11 by the time 2011-2012 rolls around. I'd probably pick whichever one was offering bonuses and so on (which is most likely to be US) for the domestic flights.

My experience with US domestic redemptions is that they are nearly impossible to do at low value. If you're used to AA, this is likely to annoy you. UA/CO are going to be better as far as that goes (but their low awards will be available to you out of US DM), and you have a number of Hawaii options out of Southern California- both UA and CO fly to Hawaii from LAX, CO flies from SNA, and UA flies to Cancun out of LAX (and CO flies as a one-stop to Cancun via Houston which is probably a nicer experience in F than US SAN-PHX-CUN- for one thing, US flies RJs out of SAN).

The reason you want to pick US for international redemptions is their mileage cost to Europe's significantly lower. See US levels and CO levels (which might be UA redemption levels by the time you get around to doing this).

Also, to be perfectly honest, if you're redeeming Star Alliance Europe awards in any cabin, I'm not sure I'd pick CO OR UA OR US as the airline to fly on, given that you have Lufthansa, Swiss, Air New Zealand or Air Canada, all of which have highly regarded F or J products (and whose Y products also probably beat UA or CO). Given that a US or CO redemption means a one-stop (potentially in Newark or Philadephia, where you could get hit by problems on the East Coast), I'd prefer either travel that doesn't involve stops in the US, or sticking to the West Coast. UA does have nonstop options out of LAX, or you could go out of SFO or LAX as a one-stop from SAN.
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