thanks eveyone for the info. and I have flown UA a couple of times simply because of fares. The beginning of the year I was getting crazy low fares for the ord to mumbai flight, then a cheap Jet airways flight into the UAE. Then I would book the AA codeshare on EY home. And twice I have had to book it direct with EY because AA wanted twice the price for the same seat...grrr. lost miles... although I have a bunch in both ua and ey, but not enough for anything worthwhile.