Originally Posted by
MfromL
Thanks for the comments. I know it's a tricky question. Sdsearch: I don't mind that much about redeeming miles, what is more important to me is the treatment and extra perks that status has. Lanpass cabin upgrades, it seem to me, are less likely to happen that AA (am I right?).
Being based in MSP I could switch to Delta but I don't like it from past experience and since I will return to Peru I'd like to stay OW that has LAN, with the biggest share of US-bound flights and AA, with the most seats in relation to Delta or UA.
The only thing that bothers me with AA is the age of their fleet.
AA has totally different upgrade policies for "domestic" vs "international". (I put those in quotes because AA doesn't always define "domestic" and "international" at the dividing line you'd expect, and for each aspect of operation they can place that dividing line in a different place!) "Domestic" flights you get free upgrades on flights of 500 miles or less, and need to use "stickers" (a legacy name) aka "500 mile upgrades" to upgrade on other flights. These kinds of distance-based upgrades are not available on "international" flights. (IIRC, for these kinds of upgrades, "domestic" includes for example lower US<->Canada flights.)
The other way to upgrade (without getting to the top level of status) on AA is to use miles+copay. The advantage of having the copay is that it works from most any fare you can book on aa.com. (At other airlines that don't have a copay, you can't upgrade from the cheapest fares.) Using miles+copay upgrades is pretty easy on domestic 2-class planes (where the same "fare code" that's used for discount "first" class is also used for miles+copay upgrades). It's trickier on three-cabin transcon flights (but from MSP, I doubt you'd be connecting to those!) or on international flights where the cabin up front is renamed "business". (Thus these kinds of upgrades are trickier to Canada than within the US.)
The good news is that AA doesn't hold back "sticker" upgrades if there's space. The other good news is that out of MSP you're not likely to have as much competition from many higher-tier elites as you would from an AA hub city. The bad news is that if all you qualify for is Gold, on the more elite-heavy flights you might connect to, you'll be last in line for "sticker" upgrades.
With miles + copay upgrades, you can do two strategies: One is to use ExpertFlyer.com (a subscription site) to watch for upgrade space to be available (and/or to sign up for alerts when it becomes available), the other other is to request the miles + copay upgrade right after your flight is ticketed, and get on a waiting list. (If you do that, just make sure to use a credit card which won't expire before the flight, since if your upgrade comes through, it could be at any time up to then.)