Originally Posted by
jinglish
UA does have the Excursionist Perk, where if you book a round trip or open jaw, you're entitled to a free award flight in the same cabin in the destination region. But the flight has to be within that region, so NRT-BKK wouldn't qualify.
Would BKK-HKG qualify? If not, I could re-order the cities that I visit (so that one of the asia legs is intra-region)
My point here though is, even with excursionist, this is going to cost about 2x the miles on UA. Again, just one example, but that free stopover in EACH direction, along with the much lower mileage cost per segment, really adds up.
Which is not to say that AS does not have restrictions as well (only one partner per direction) but overall I see AS miles as a much better deal. Also... they are MUCH easier to get. You can fly round-trip SFO-JFK (or EWR) for $250-ish, and that's 5500 miles + status bonus. A $250 fare on UA is going to earn you 1250 miles + status bonus.
There are some good values on partners too, although pretty much only on J or F tickets. But I look at something like 3x RDM and 2x EQM on Condor J as a ridiculously good deal, especially considering that you are doing it in comfort (you can get 5500-ish mile J tickets for as cheap as $1100 -- that's 16,500 RDM).
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: at this point, AS has two advantages over the big 3:
1. No change fee for gold+
2. Earn way more miles, and have each mile be a lot more valuable (this is a multiplicative effect)
And of course we all know the disadvantages (network, lack of premium product for premium routes)
So you have to decide what's more important to you.