In short, it was good while it lasted, but the FF game is over.
Originally Posted by
lazard
That has more to do with the partners than AA. At least they're not like SQ and block partner redemptions.
If I can spend UA miles to get there and I can't spend AA miles to get there, AA doesn't get a pass just because "Well, it's really AA's partner is stopping that."
Originally Posted by
sinoflyer
This is true until you run out of SWUs. All things considered equal (i.e., upgrading from the lowest possible Y fare), UA's W-fare roulette becomes a better value at the third long-haul trip. With AA, you would have to decide whether to tough it out in Y or spring for J (assuming that you haven't earned additional SWUs at that point).
Suppose it depends on your travel mix, but I just spent an extra $500 on two tickets to use GPUs. That's an extra $1k in value in the AA program since I won't make 3 round trips this year... Although in years where I do normally make 1k, 3 round trips is pretty common.
But I could also end up spending more than an extra $1,500/year redeeming 6 GPUs if I'm forced to play the lottery.
It's also noteworthy that AA doesn't have the equivalent of RPUs. For me, that limits my options for upgrading LAX-JFK and -Hawaii to stickers only--not good for blood pressure!
(I know, I can also use miles, but I think my point is clear.)
The RPUs are definitely a nice perk - at 1K, it's really 4 SWU+0 RPU vs 6 GPU+4 RPU.
When I referred to AA's lousy award redemption, I was thinking of both AA and OW partners. But let's just talk about AA. IMO it's not an understatement to say that AA is stingy--especially in comparison to UA. I mainly redeem transpac awards for my family, so I'll limit my comment to AA's U.S.-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG routes. Other than DFW-HKG, which has heavy loads (although I doubt it's profitable, but that's OT), it's still very difficult to find award space on those other routes unless you plan wAAy early or just days prior to departure.
I'm generally pretty happy with UA's award redemption options to NOT Asia/Australia. Domestic it's pretty good.