Istoner,
I am biased I'll tell you up front when it comes to UA vs AA. I left UA in the summer of 2000 for the shear insanity that went on.
AA is the airline for you and I'll tell you the perks first, and the "how to" afterwards.
Gold Member - You get upgrades for every 10K flown. I usually don't use them though, because it is best to turn the 4 upgrades in exchange for 10K miles. Here's why, as a Gold member you can purchase (8 or more quantity) upgrades good for 500 miles at $31.25 apiece. Try finding an airfare for $125 that yields you 10,000 miles. You also get confirmed seats in F 24 hours prior to departure, and a 25% mileage bonus (doesn't count towards status, but it will help later in international upgrades)
Platinum Member - same as the above, but you get 100% mileage bonus (again, doesn't count towards status, but the miles are available for upgrade.) Confirmed F upgrades 72 hours in advance.
Executive Platinum - creme de la creme - I couldn't even possibly do that right now but you can check out all the info at:
http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/AA/index2.html
Click on "Elite" at the left to read further.
Now, how to get Gold or Platinum. Join the AA FF plan and then take the Gold Challenge. This is also detailed on the site I provided. Basically, if you fly 10K on a discounted economy fare, you will get 5K, which will get you Gold status with the challenge provided you do it within 90 days. Then, if you're so inclined, sign up for the Platinum challenge. You'll need 10K miles on full Y fares, or 20K on discounted economy, again within a 90 day period.
Best advice is to start the Gold now. Then wait and begin the Plat after July 16 as this will give you Plat status until Feb of 2004. Not too shabby?
Furthermore, once you're Gold you can enjoy the benefits of doing your runs for PLAT in F. Try that on any other airline.
International: AA is real clear on this. You can buy any discounted fare and upgrade with miles only. To Europe and South America it is 25K each way. You can upgrade one class only...buy a coach fare, upgrade to J, buy a business fare, upgrade to F.
They don't pull any of this junk that NW, CO, and DL do about the particular fare class.
There are always some fares, priceline.com and consolidators that don't qualify, but any fare purchased on aa.com or orbitz.com, expedia.com, etc should qualify. Always look at the fare before you buy, call AA and give them the code...they'll be more than happy to tell you. I have been purchasing tickets online for 4 years now and never had a problem with a fare code that didn't allow for upgrading.
Happy traveling. Hope you find this helpful and rewarding as you enjoy the golden years!
If you are diligent and do this correctly you can enjoy all the above for anywhere between $800-1500 at the most. A small price to pay for virtually unlimited F access. Plus you still have the 500K on NW!
[This message has been edited by LLZ (edited 05-17-2002).]