Originally Posted by dvs7310

Yeah, I very reluctantly put my most recent DONE5 on my Citi AA card before I actually did a full LP calculation for the remainder of the year. Now I'm going to be sitting on about 270k LP which I'm not super happy about. I could have moved some spend to Chase for more UR. (I'm not going to switch flight earnings over to another program because the EXP bonus is too lucrative, this overlap is simply being more cognizant of changing spend from Citi to Chase in future years.) I'm not one that needs to compete for domestic upgrades by maximizing LPs as high as they can go as I don't fly domestic much and I rarely buy an economy ticket hoping for an upgrade now. Even going to 250k LP for SWUs vs 200k just for EXP (or for that matter even 125k just for PPro) is starting to reveal how difficult it is to justify for me. I do appreciate getting to 200k for EXP just because the 120% elite bonus and I am in a place in the world where I can REALLY utilize AA miles quite well (and in this part of the world they are the best in OW if you're going beyond the short range tier with Avios. Literally the only program here any better is LifeMiles and that depends on the city pair as their regions are a bit different.). So the 120% for EXP vs. 80% for PPro actually is beneficial for that reason alone. I value the 120% elite bonus and the Emerald status. A couple of years ago I had to burn SWUs for MIA-SXM and back, despite most likely clearing for "free" anyway. The EXP agent was like 'are you really sure?'... I said yeah I have literally nothing else to use them on. I'm going to be sitting on 3-4 of them again at the end of this year sadly.

Not complaining, AAdvantage is wonderful where I live, and OW availability intra-Asia and Asia to the west is REALLY good (that's not unique to AA, every OW program has the same general availability, just a fact of the location) But I think this is the last year I chase SWUs, sadly. The restrictions using them on BA are too difficult where I might actually be able to C to F. If AA ever adds JL to the SWU partners, now that's something I can get excited about again. But even for the OP, AA is likely a very good program, just has to plan ahead for partner awards and be willing to position to where they fly (pretty sure OP is in DEN and that's not served by any international OW airlines I believe). Not saying chasing BAEC Gold is a bad idea either, but Avios are pretty terrible these days for any long haul redemptions and the status doesn't give much beyond other OW Emerald except domestic lounge access in the US (which I don't need but the OP might).

If I lived in the US and traveled on economy tickets a lot, I'd 100% go for AA EXP, not a question. But if most flights are international and you buy premium cabins, then that 'upgrade potential' looses it's luster. Then you get the question of where you're treated best... I find the abundance of AA miles highly beneficial but the OP may find Avios more beneficial.