Originally Posted by
itsme
Does AA award schedule make theirs generally more "expensive" or "cheap" than UA's whether figured as miles or $s?
UA miles on UA metal and AA miles on AA metal are fully dynamic, so no good answer.
UA miles on partner metal are almost strictly worse than AA miles on partner metal.
LAX-Tokyo one-way business class is 110k UA on ANA metal, 60k AA on JAL metal.
LAX-LHR one-way business class is like 80k minimum (sometimes 100k+), while AA can get as low as 57.5k. Although if flying on British Airways metal, there are hundreds of dollars in surcharges.
And AA blows UA out of the water when it comes to South America redemptions both in availability and price.
The only worthwhile application of UA miles are for domestic economy flights.