twyatt

I have high status with UA and want to keep it. I found an excellent fare on US for Thanksgiving travel (last week of November). I would book this immediately, but I will need the UA qualifying miles.
I recall that CO left Sky Team at the end of October 2009 when daylight savings time ended and the winter schedule was posted.
Bearing that in mind, knowing we are in mid-July at this moment, do you think (or speculate) that US will still be in *A by end of November?

born sleepy

Unsure if this is the right place, but...

I'm United 1K. AA offered me a challenge to ExPlat, 25,000 points (not miles!) in three months. I took it not knowing what the terms of the deal would be until it was approved. If it'd been miles, sure, no problem. Points, no; I have to buy cheaper fares. So I never bothered to fly AA and the challenge expired.

What I am wondering is if US will do a match/challenge to CP for a United 1K pre-merger, because I'm pretty sure AA won't offer it again. Maybe after the merger?

Of course the grass is always greener but I'm sure hoping US doesn't screw up the merger for AA like CO did to UA.

rove312

FWIW, http://www.chron.com/news/article/Co...er-1650722.php shows that CO announced in January 2009 that it would leave SkyTeam after the last flight Oct. 24. Based on that, one could guess that US wouldn't change alliances that soon.

BoeingBoy

US hasn't traditionally offered matches from UA except for some corporate accounts, but that's because both are in *A. US does offer a trail that carries a fee with the amount depending on the elite level you sign up for.

I wasn't aware that AA didn't offer a trail or match any longer but if true it's an open question which wil be offered after the FF programs are merged. When combining programs some feature willl come from one of the programs and some from the other.

Jim

born sleepy

I meant that AA (and most airlines that I know of) will only allow one challenge/match opportunity ever and if you blow it, tough noogies. This was earlier this year so I'm sure they're still doing it.

Maybe when they merge the systems it will forget I was Exec Plat for three months...

BoeingBoy

Gotcha. The US trial is a definite possibility since when the programs are merged it should carry over. The big drawback is that you'd have to maintain it long enough for the programs to be merged. That means flying US/USX metal enough to meet the qualification of the level you want within 90 days, then flying enough annually on *A carriers to maintain that status. If you meet the trial there a cutover date which I don't know - before that the status is good until the end of February of the next year, after it good till the 2nd February following qualification. Maybe someone else can post whether qualifying now would give status till 2/28/2014 of 2/28/2015. Chances are that the programs won't be merged by the end of February next year since US will likely still be in the *A. So you'd either need the trial status qualification to last to February 2015 or retain status by flying.

Jim

akelkar

To add on to this: I signed up for Trial Preferred on July 1st, the terms and conditions stated that whatever status I achieved would last until February 2015.

However, when I looked into buying status a couple weeks ago, the T&C said it would only last until February 2014.

It looks like Trial is the way to go and hopefully you can rack up enough miles in the next year and a half to maintain status going into the merger

born sleepy

OK, thanks all. I think what I will do is wait until the merger is finalized and the two FF programs are merged next year. I think I will make 1K again for 2014.

kochleffel

Anyone have a guess about when it might become possibly to book an award itinerary that combines US and AA flights?

I'm trying to plan a trip for February 2014 to a destination (CUR) served primarily by AA, but my home airport has no AA service, not even Eaglet. The route is possible by connecting from US to AA in either PHL or MIA.

The award booking would be made with US miles. On US it is possibly to get only to AUA, although the short hop from there to CUR on a local airline isn't expensive.

AggieNzona

Seem like a good mix of US and AA VPs

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...an-eagle.html/

NiceLanding

Generally so, but it might have been nice if the SVP Customer Experience had come from the AA side (however unlikely).

Edit: Just realized this is an operations position, not what I had been thinking for "Customer Experience". My concern was simply about having strong pmAA voices in the right places to retain the customer-friendly attitudes and policies that I currently enjoy at AA.

howtofreetravel

I was thinking of doing that challenge but i need AA miles . Any idea when you could transfer?

bosnyc

prob. in the 2015-2016 neighborhood, assuming the DOJ green-lights the merger and the internal powers-that-be take the same path/ timeframe as DL/NW, UA/CO, etc.

howtofreetravel

Aha in that case should i wait to do the challenge?

WiscAZ

Nah, go for it.