Originally Posted by chicagorich
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Another thing to check is which of the airlines have the lowest mileage requirement to get to South America from your location.
Even though UA, US and AC are in Star Alliance--they will not all have the same award mileage requirment from North America to international destinations.
If AC's award mileage requirement were less than UA's, it might make sense to accrue mileage on AC--depends on the specifics
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Well--I just took a quick look--UA's mileage requirement from North America to South America is 50K/80K/100K and AC's mileage requirement for the same award is 50K/75K/100K.
So assuming that the mid-level award is business class and I assume there are more two class than three class aircraft running on routes like that--the AC award is 5,000 miles less.
Might be better to accrue the miles in the UA account and when it comes time to take the trip, try to snag the AC award using your UA miles. Not sure that is doable in your location--but you are closer to getting a premium award on UA than AC--makes sense to accrue miles there since you are not far away from that award level on either airline.