Originally Posted by
kebosabi
I disagree. UA doesn't recognize non-UA flights to count towards their lifetime counter; only UA metal flights. So if you happen to take a long ANA flight from LAX-NRT or SQ flight from NRT-SIN, it means jack on MM recognition on UA.
In contrast, AA recognizes flights like LAX-LHR on BA, or HKG-AMS on CX. Having AA count international flights on their partners to the MM counter is a big plus over UA.
Not as big a plus as it may seem. It's a
lot easier to fly UA metal internationally than it is AA metal, especially from the West Coast.