Originally Posted by prettyflygirl
While I agree that there is no one ff program best for everyone, in general, AA has to be the overall best. More award seats, more options (because of BA affiliation), more destinations. I have hundreds of thousands of miles with UA, CO, SQ, and AA, and none of them are as valuable as with AA. (Too bad I mostly fly CO and SQ). Although AA is not my favorite airline (employees at war with the passengers), the FF program is great!
PFG
I have to disagree about AA being the best overall program. Last year I became a Platinum Elite member on AA and discovered ..... that it's still practically impossible to be upgraded on this airline. Unlike CO and NW which both automatically upgrade Elite members to business-first class, AA requires that members earn or buy upgrade segment coupons. Even with the coupons, on a long flight e.g., L.A. to NYC, I still cannot get an upgrade. Also, AA often refuses release seats so that "elite" members can use miles to upgrade revenue seats. All of this added to their simply awful customer service and cramped planes has led me to return my primary allegiance to NW (though on afterthought I should have selected CO which has an advantage because of their online tool for booking award travel).
To me, the best program is one in which you can actually obtain benefits e.g., ways to earn free tickets faster or easy upgrade privileges. AA definitely does not fill either of these aims.