Originally Posted by
EaglesOhThree
are you actually claiming to have done an exhaustive examination of fees on DL and UA/CO in having come to this conclusion? AAdvantage has absolutely nothing to apologize for in this area. as an airline AA may have many weaknesses, as a FF program, no.
It doesn't require anything that is exactly exhaustive. Here are basically the categories of fees that are waive by some airlines for elites:
(1) baggage (pretty much everyone - some waivers are better than others in terms of extra bags/extra weight -e.g. STAR Gold)
(2) standby (free standby for elites seems to be across the board now at least amongst the full-service carriers)
(3) CFCs (AA)/SDCs (DL), etc. (UA/CO/DL/AS/US waive - AA does not - now, AA makes up for this by having a generous 12 hour window - though arguably more restricted E space - but that doesn't change the fact that AA charges elites the $50 fee).
(4) Phone Ticketing Fees (this is an area I admittedly haven't done a full comparison)
(5) Redeposit fees (again, I believe this is standard across the industry)
The point is that AA lags in (1) and (3) and I don't believe exceeds the full-service ailrine competiton in any other category.
I agree that AAdvantage is the best FF program out there. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have weaknesses in some areas vs the competition. And it doesn't mean they shouldn't be pointed out. Pointing out that you're better in some areas is certainly a good sales pitch. But it can't be the strategy. You want to use the competition as a benchmark. Especially when AA/One World has network weakness at the moment.