Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
"Miles being more valuable" is entirely subjective and depends on how you're going to earn and use the miles. It's not like 30 or 40k of either AS miles or AA miles will get you a first class trip around the world.
So unless there's a very specific redemption you're planning where AS would be a runaway winner I would probably stick with AA, since you can earn status and are east coast based. And of course AA's new Loyalty Points system is all spend based with lots of opportunities to earn additional LP's towards status with credit card spend, shopping portals, etc.
I have a fair amount of both AS and AA miles and if you want to use your miles for international long haul, I would say that AS is the clear winner for most destinations. The free stopovers are very valuable (even if you don't want a stopover, you can basically have your stoppver be your time at home between two trips, if the routing works out).
I think that AS is particularly strong to get to Asia (and a little weak to get to Europe, only because Finnair is significantly more expensive in AS miles than AA miles. But, still, with the stopover, there is good value)
The lack of multi-partner awards hurts AS a bit (in particular you cannot fly AA domestically to get to the gateway if the international flight is not on AA -- you must fly AS metal for those domestic segments, and their network is not great if you are not West coast based) but I still think that the stopovers make up for it. Once I burn through my last 500k or so miles, I will miss the AS program.