Originally Posted by
bethwl
I have been most loyal to AA since 1996, but am considering switching to UA. My father flies UA for international business frequently and has over a million miles; if I switch I will see if he is able to gift me at least the minimum status or higher, otherwise I'm not much inclined to switch. Reasons to consider switching are I'm seeing UA flights cheaper on some routes I check with regularity lately, as well as better flight times. For example, need to fly to Asia next month (ORD-HKG-PVG-ORD, OR ORD-HKG round-trip, or ORD-HKG-CAN-ORD would all work fine), and consistently seeing UA fares for this several hundred bucks cheaper than AA. But haven't flown UA in a long time and last time I did to HKG, plane was fairly crappy.
Hi Bethwl,
Pretty even match in your case. Since some of your requests, like free bags and priority boarding/check-in can be had with CCs, as you mention, then it would primarily come down to fare pricing as the main difference in your list, in my opinion. I'm not on top of prices from ORD, but it seems like you have been paying attention. Your destinations map well to either with nonstop and one-stop flights. I think UA has better award availability and options through Star Alliance. But AA treats fliers better IMO, and UA irrops can be disastrous at times, also just IMO, so I can imagine from ORD that could be rough.
So all in all, to me it comes down to saving a few hundred dollars, better schedule, and better awards VS better planes, better service, and possibly having status on AA with none on UA. To me that's not enough to switch. I'd stick with AA, but maybe give UA a shot once since it's been awhile and see how you like the flight to HKG.
(Lastly, the UA 747's don't have personal TV's as they are pretty dated, and they ply the Asia routes from ORD often. Not sure when they are scheduled for updates or retirements, I'm sure there is more though in the UA forum. The 777s are better IMO, and have tv's, for sure the old CO ones, and I think the UA ones too).