Originally Posted by
Catbert10
So, I have a choice. Take my $12K from UA and apply to AA, or take my my $12K from AA and apply it to UA. Fish or cut bait, which I'm sure is EXACTLY what AA is trying to incent me to do. Unfortunately, my travel patterns don't make it easy to give up one or the other.
Well, I think they are trying to incentivize you to fish, and not to cut bait!
But in any case, as another potential "Tail End Charlie" (I'm not sure how my full year EQDs will measure up, but I suspect they will be in the $12-13K range --and that WITH a $3K boost from the Aviator card), I have a choice, too. I can credit all my 1W flights to AA (nowadays, beginning in November with another BAEC requalification year, I credit all the front cabin ones to BA until I hit 15K TPs) and forget about BA, but I don't think I want to do that yet; or I can upgrade my Aviator card to Silver and put another $25K spend on it to get another $3K EQDs, but given the lack of value of AAdvantage miles nowadays (and my very large unused pile of them), I am reluctant to do that just to get myself somewhere out of the tail and into the lower middle class.
I've generally booked my flights 4-5 weeks out and had pretty good success on UGs (MIA and the transcons have been the tough ones for me); I've often been
#1 on the list, occasionally
#2 or
#3 , and usually there's been at least one seat up for grabs on domestics. I don't do much domestic flying anymore, though--maybe 2 transcon R/Ts, one mid-con, 1 JFK-BOS a year, so I think I'll just take my chances for this year and see how it plays out for me.