Originally Posted by
JPG3392
I suggest that you sign up for both UA and AA. UA and its partners offer good flights to Europe, and AA will have a large presence in Charlotte after the merger with US. In the meantime, you can apply miles from US flights to the UA program. Try, however, to concentrate your miles on one airline as much as possible.
I agree. I started travelling for work (long hauls only) 2.5 years ago. I do UA and AA and have good status on both.
I always accrued on the US airline. It just makes things easier to have airline miles in fewer buckets (US buckets) than all over the world.
I find it REALLY hard these day to stay 100% loyal. This #1 because of cost. 1 trip AA is by far cheaper, the next UA is by far cheaper. And as I travel all over the world, the routing is important. This year UA had better routing to Beijing and Vienna (both direct from ORD at good times). So I've been on UA this year. Last year was all AA.
As a side note, I can only fly UA home to visit my parents. So while I find AA more rewarding, I need to keep earning UA miles for trips home for Turkey/Xmas/etc.