3Cforme

There's no AS network outside of North America - AS redemptions are 100% reliant on partners, and partner saver inventory. (You won't find Qantas awards with AA miles, either.)

Kremmen

Alaska is way better value, if you can get an award at all. Increasingly, it's becoming a very big *if*.

No, it's incredibly painful and very often AS agents can't access the same awards that BA and QF can. It used to be easier, before the big CX reduction in availability. It also used to be possible to secure non-optimal flights and change them later for free, but that now costs. (e.g. A friend who wanted to fly PER-SFO booked ADL-HKG-SFO a few days before the fees came in and was then able to change it to PER-HKG-SFO later when the PER-HKG became available. Now, there would be a change fee.)

Yes. You can't see them and neither can AS! I was just trying to book one today. Even when QF and BA are showing 4 seats in business, AS has nothing.

They are extremely easy to get through United, at least from the west coast. SEA/LAX/SFO-NRT/ICN/TPE-PVG/BKK/SIN-Aust is available on pretty much any day if you book far enough out, through a combination of OZ/NH/BR/TG/SQ/CA. Some of the timings suck, but at least they exist. The only issue is price. (90k UA miles vs 60k AS miles.)

pinniped

AS and UA are a nice pair with which to have a stash of both. UA has always been my favorite award redemption to Europe, thanks to no junk fees and ample choices of partners and routings. I'm sometimes looking for 2 J and other times looking for 5 Y. I can usually get them on AC, LH, or UA metal.

AS's strength is Asia, but it's also nice to have the Star Alliance backup option if you can only find your CX or JL seats one direction. Finding more than 2 J is very hard. Finding more than 1 (!) F is very hard.

I'm a longtime AA flier but have been frustrated with the need to always avoid long-haul BA metal because of the garbage fees. So much of their Europe availability runs through LHR that this becomes painful at times. The total permutations on *A are so much more and diverse...you're bound to find something.

sdsearch

Be careful.

United displays additional premium award availability on its own metal to 1K elites, but not to lower-level elites. Lower-level UA elites only see additional coach award availability on UA metal.

So you may see less UA metal premium availability once your status drops.

United Saver Award Availability: How does it vary by elite level?

So are you comparing UA metal premium award availability (which is "distorted" due to your current status), or only UA partner award availability (which doesn't change depending on status)?

sfozrhfco

Not sure that this is the case. I log in as a silver and look at space from SFO to FRA on 4 Oct and see business space through ZRH for 60,000 miles. When I am not logged in, it is only available for 155,000 miles.

sfozrhfco

It is really going to come down to where you are based, how much flexibility you have, and how you earn your miles. If you are based in SEA/Alaska, then your options on AS will likely be better. If you are based in SFO, then it is really no contest if you have a lot of miles. *A just has way more options and of course if you have enough miles, you can usually get something that works using an every day award. As AS goes nowhere in Europe and Asia you are 100% reliant on partner saver space AND that the partnership will actually exist by the time you need to travel. If you are inflexible with dates/times/routings, then AS is definitely not for you. UA is likely better domestically for premium space given the huge network--but again it comes down the actual routes you fly. If you are flying to Alaska or SEA, then AS may well have more options.

3Cforme

Even ignoring the value of elite perks there are many vectors to assess in determining the value of elite status & awards:

- Speed of mileage accrual given the carriers you use and fare classes you buy

- Ease, speed, thoroughness, and general lack of bugginess with award search across relevant available partners

- Award rules (free date changes, routing changes, stopovers, double open jaws, etc.)

- Award pricing, but, as participants in all U.S. programs other than Southwest and JetBlue are learning, award availability

Continental brought a pretty good many-carrier award search engine to United. Eight years later AA (and I mean AA, not AS) still hasn't matched it.

pinniped

Indeed, UA (thanks to CO) has a pretty solid search engine, all things considered. Not perfect, but fairly user-friendly and good coverage across the alliance.

AS wins for ease of earning (a per-mile-flown program with flight minimums and generous premium cabin multipliers), award pricing, and one-way stopovers permitted. Loses on difficulty to book and general availability.

sfozrhfco

Given that the whole point of earning the points/miles is to use them, on this front UA wins hands down--and this coming from somebody that hated UA for years. AS is still quite easy on the earn side but getting worse and worse on the redemption side which really makes me not want to bother earning points just to collect them. That is one great thing about the WN/B6 programs. I can always get an award unless the flight is completely sold out.

pinniped

Yeah, I too have gone through periods of hating UA and other periods of being okay with UA. Right now, they're winning on the availability front - both for having the seats and for not piling on junk fees to book them. I used to be a big AA homer - was Plat for many years - but now they frustrate me more than anything. Most odd, I've been finding decent value on DL booking mid-con Comfort+ tickets for 12,000 miles one-way. Holding a Comfort+ seat mostly mitigates the pain of flying with no status. (I still never see great aspirational F/J partner awards on DL.)

With AS, I hope to use the bulk of my miles in early 2020 (booking early 2019). I will have wide date flexibility, so hopefully I can sneak a two-person award itin in there somehow.

BlueHenFlyer

Can't agree more - but then you end up like me - 2 years after a status match on AS to MVP Gold 75K, sitting on almost 1 MM miles - nowhere to use them. I've been giving all my friends and their kids free domestic trips as that's the only place I (personally) can use them. My wife doesn't know her schedule 6-9 months out, when we want to book we have virtually 0 flexibility on dates. I don't like Mexico, Hawaii, or any other place where there's a beach. Don't even get me started on AS' freaky IT problems and the inability to find any international flights where, as the original poster noted, the international segment isn't in coach.

I wouldn't mind paying 100,000 miles O/W for an award ticket to Europe, just to burn the darned miles - but every time I look (and I do, because I need to burn said miles) I get the no availability screen. I've been back to UA for two years now, service is MUCH better. Even with the PQD/PQM/Earning formulas - it still works better to get miles I can use.

sfozrhfco

This is the holy grail for airlines running FF programs. Get people to over pay under the guise of earning "huge" rewards back from the program and then letting the miles accrued go unused because there is nothing worthwhile to use them for if you are not flexible.

Eastbay1K

And that is good for you. Every program works differently for everyone. What I find appealing with my AS status is that I can book something, keep rebooking as my more desired dates come into availability, and pay no fees. The worst I'm out for a trip I don't take is $25 for a partner award. After 32 years of this game (with the first 20 having a lot of UA, in its former life, travel), I've eventually gotten what I want, close to when I want to go, most of the time, with AS.

pinniped

In your case, I can see where the much-larger range of options and ability to book almost all of them online makes UA a much better fit for you.

We'll see if I'm still happy with AS in about six months when I'm actually attempting to book some long-haul partner award seats. I'll be 330 days out, with plenty of flexibility, but even then I know it's not always easy.

eponymous_coward

Beats me, man.

Last few years of AS international redemptions through 2019:

LAX-BKK-HKG in CX F/J
DUS-ORD in AA J (this was a summertime, peak season redemption)
HKG-LAX in AA F
BKK-HEL-HAJ in AY J
AMS-LHR-IAD in BA F (this is a summertime, peak season redemption, and YQ wasn't completely miserable with an AMS origin)

Those are the ones I intend to fly or did fly, there are other ones I didn't: YVR-NRT in JL J, NRT-DEL in JL J, NRT-HEL in AY J.

And I am stuck in AA Y on MEX-DFW, so I grant you have a point. Of course the DFW-SEA segment in AA F on that redemption is twice as long though. And there are additional segments after a months-long layover in SEA that get me to PHX during spring training (when awards aren't always easy to find and prices aren't great).

And that MEX-DFW-SEA(stop)-LAX-PHX routing is a one way award for 27.5k AS miles. The comparable cost for United for that itinerary would be 55k miles (two awards).

But you do you. I probably would have done something similar if I hated beaches and I could never find anything I wanted in a program. I don't seem to have that problem using AS miles, but if a program doesn't work for you it doesn't work.

*A gives you lots of options, and as long as AV is going to replace US as the "Star Alliance premium cabin consolidator" by selling cheap miles I don't plan on giving them up, so I get where you are coming from, and if UA works for you then go you.

I haven't had an AS MP balance in the six digits in quite some time (and never seven, and I don't think I've had a six digit balance that started with a crooked number ever). Or any airline program.

There is that, and that is pretty much how I operate. I've known when I am going to be able to travel twice a year for some time now (and it's during periods when EVERYONE travels- summer and US Christmas). Been able to go to a lot of places with the assistance of AS miles.

Between a balance in *A (AV) and one in OW-ish + others (AS) I can usually get things done somehow.