Originally Posted by
constantmotion
I think I'd prefer to go US or UA for way-down-the-road international awards; since they're both Star Alliance, wouldn't it be better for me to go US since UA apparently does some blocking of partners? Or am I understanding that wrong? Or is there something UA has that US couldn't do?
It's called Starnet Blocking, apparently, and that's my understanding as well. US also seems to be easier, as noted, to earn miles outside of flying, with all of their promotions, as well as the Starwood AMEX (great 30,0000 point bonus running right now, by the way), which pays an effective 1.25 miles per dollar (in batches of 20,000 starpoints) into US, but not United (their relationship with Chase seems to have caused them to gimp their transfers from Starwood).
I'm unware of anything United can give you that US can't, but I'm hardly an expert there.