Here's my experience with AA AAvantgage and UA MP programs that I like to share. This is intended for informational only. I do not promote one program over the other. Each person should exam and determine which airline program best fits his/her needs.

Each program has its strength and weakness. In my case, Hawaiian awards and upgrades are my priorities so it's toss up between AA and UA. Because UA has better schedule (out of IAD), I gives UA edge over AA.


Promotions: AA
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AA UA
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Web Registeration N/A Yes
Prompt Posting* Yes Maybe

My vote goes to AA because it posts all registered bonus miles promptly. But with UA I had to email/call several times to get bonus miles posted.


Upgrade from full-fare: UA
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AA UA
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Miles RT 15000 10000
Miles OW N/A 5000
Fee* $75 None

UA gets my vote on upgrades. AA charges $50/$75 (ouch!) for expedition if you don't have certificate at hand on top of additional 5000 miles. With UA, I was able to upgrade at the airport.


(Hawaiian) Awards: AA
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AA UA
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Stop-over Yes Yes
Open jaw Yes Yes
Both Yes No
On hold 1 month 2 days
2 FC 100000 120000

My vote goes to AA. Since I only redeemed for Hawaiian award, I can only comment on Hawaiian awards. UA doesn't allow stop-over with open-jaw; I was told that it's considered two stop-overs. For example, with UA I couldn't do IAD-HNL/KOA-LAS-IAD so I had to change to IAD-HNL/HN-LAS-IAD. With AA, I was able to do IAD-LAX-HNL/LIH-IAD and IAD-SFO-OGG/LIH-IAD. UA needs 24 hours to confirm seats on Aloha Airline seats but AA can confirm seats on Hawaiian at the time of reservation. Lastly, I can put the reservation on hold for a month on AA but UA only allows 2 days. I can make sure I have seats on AA while allowing me to work on miles or allows me to wait til a month before the travel dates to make changes. Last year, I had unplanned business trip to California so I had to cancel my award reservation. If I had ticketed I would had to pay fee to redeposit award tickets.

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Dan