Originally Posted by guv1976

I think that AAdvantage is superior to Delta's SkyMiles program (there's a reason why they're called "Sky Pesos"). UA's MileagePlus has the benefit of more partners in Star Alliance, and no carrier surcharges on any redemptions, but for a lot of redemptions, they seem to charge more miles than AAdvantage does. AAdvantage sometimes has very cheap redemptions on domestic Coach award travel.

If you're looking for Coach award travel, AAdvantage should be fine. For premium cabin travel, I expect that you'll be spending a lot of miles no matter which program you use.

DL as an airline seems to be higher rated than AA by many travelers, but I think that one's experience on AA would be OK with even low-level elite status.

Depending on how much (non-business-travel) spend you can put annually on a Citi or Barclays AA credit card, you could reach elite status in AAdvantage pretty quickly. And miles earned through AA's e-shopping portal now count towards status, too.