Sure does ring a bell. Well, again and again and again. Maybe i just have tinnitus

You wont be experiencing these high end "samplers" using AA miles since the OneWorld Explorer awards were discontinued. One nice thing about AA miles over UA is using alliance carriers are the same prices as using AA only. Also Oneworld has Some high end partners like Cathay, Qatar and Ethiad.

Over on United, which still allows a stop-over on round trip awards, it could cost you more for Business class on a partner than first on United planes. Then again business on some partners, the in-flight experience is equal or even above to United First. Downfall is First on partners can be up to 50K miles more each way. I cant think of any Star Alliance airlines worth paying nearly double for an award to sit in F