Have you thought of US Airways?

I don't have much experience with AA but my hub city used to be Boston. I had status on US Airways and my brother on United. While he got economy plus, I often had upgrades on my flights, even when I started as a silver. US Airways and United are on the same Star Alliance and I found that for domestic flights it tends to be cheaper than United. For international flights (ie to Asia), I often had to fly United, did not get economy plus, but I wasn't flying that often to Asia anyway.... It really depends on your flying patterns.

As far as award redemption, United has cheaper Asian awards (same redemption more or less because they are both Star Alliance), while US Airways had much cheaper European awards mid Jan-Feb. US Airways is slightly cheaper for African redemption.

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