Originally Posted by
lhrsfo
My personal experience is that UA is more reliable than BA and the hard product is fine. The lounges at LHR and IAH are excellent. BUT, onboard, the food and wine is absolutely terrible. I can't speak to mileage programs overall but be aware that UA's has been hugely devalued so there are few decent redemption values and, unless you have elite status, you face change fees on redemptions. I do read that Avianca's has some sweet spots, but I don't know enough to really comment.
All of the US-based (and several of the big international players) have significantly devalued their mileage points, though I still find tremendous value in UA’s points for international redemptions, especially if the flights do not originate or end in North America, certainly much more value than Delta Skymiles and even FlyingBlue.
Avianca does has some niche value, as does Turkish Miles & Smiles and Singapore KrisFlyer. However, for global reach, ease of use, and reasonable redemption value, I find Air Canada Aeroplan to be the best within Star Alliance. That said…while we’ve all been focused on the travel chaos in Europe lately, Canada has been doing just as bad, if not worse. So probably a good idea to avoid connecting in Canada until the dust settles.