Originally Posted by
pdquick
I think you have amazingly, comprehensive nailed it.
Financially, I think your savings from the fare buy-up on your international UA/LH flights are going to balance out, if not exceed your expenses on fuel surcharge fees and taxes on BA.
I think that right now, AA is clearly a more customer-service-oriented company. I'm worried that that may change with massive layoffs in restructuring, but we won't know until we know. I think there's been a lot of catastrophizing around here about the possibility of a US merger, but frankly I'm more concerned about the impact of massive layoffs on customer service.
You're experiencing a customer-service meltdown already. The TOD upgrade situation is not likely to get better at COdbaUA, and for me that would be a deal-breaker, without any of the other considerations.
+1 I agree on all of these points, but the last is the strongest for me. UA is going downhill fast, with problems that far transcend the current reservation system integration issues. AA may or may not do so, but for now at least is much more customer-oriented and has a far superior FF program.
Also, FWIW, AA will be rolling out new international J and F classes later this year which at least in terms of hard product should leapfrog ahead of UA's, LH's (except for new LH F) and BA's offerings. It's unclear, though, whether these will just be on new planes or will be retrofitted on older ones.
Another FWIW that may not re relevant to your patterns but which I'll flag anyway: CX is a fantastic AA partner that can get you to India on with just one connection from California. And if you're ever in the mood to splurge on a mileage redemptions, CX F can't be beat and is often available using AA miles.
Originally Posted by
kyym
Thanks! But the buy-ups are usually on work (though they usually insist on the lowest fare, the W can often get reimbursed), while the YQ on BA is personal reward travel and so the hit is closer to home
I've heard that the BA YQ on award travel is bad - can anyone provide some examples of how bad?
Thanks!
Yes, this is definitely a downside to BA: An extreme example is my wife and I redeemed AA miles to fly BA SFO-LHR-DXB next month in F. The total cost for these award tix is $2900!
Another downside to BA is that I am under the impression that its Avios mileage program is pretty lousy, though I haven't dealt with it much.
OTOH, for revenue flights BA is better than UA, LH (except in new F) and AA (at least until it revamps its fleet as noted above) in all classes. One small exception to this rule is that BA doesn't have E+, though it does have World Traveler Plus, a premium economy class.