I've been a member here, but I have never been in the position to actually become a FF. In February next year, I will be starting a new job which will require me to travel extensively (every weekend for 36 weekends). Living in Austin and going to both coasts and points in-between, both AA and CO have pretty good coverage. There are two instances in the entire schedule when CO gets me about 50 miles closer to my destination than AA, but that doesn't really matter. Doing the rough estimation, on AA I will accumulate 104,370 EQM's and at least 138 EQP's. Total mileage would be around 195,000. On CO, I would end up with 114,136 EQM's and at least 151 EQP's. Total mileage is around 210,000.

My question, I guess is which program is better? I know I can challenge for Plat at AA and be a Plat faster, and with AA I will be on more mainline flights (only 16 express segments) so I might get upgraded more. On CO, I will be flying more segments and 42 express segments. EXP sounds a lot better than Plat Elite...can anybody say for sure which is better? I would hit Plat Elite before EXP by 5 weekends.

Neither airline has non-stops from Austin to the destinations I have, so a hub stop is required for both. I know CO's terminal E in Houston is nice and that seems to be where all of the AUS flights land...what about AA's terminals in DFW? (I haven't been there in more than 10 years--AA side that is).

So what's your opinion? AA AAdvantage or CO OnePass?