Should I stay with AS ex-NYC?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: ANC, NYC
Posts: 327
Should I stay with AS ex-NYC?
I grew up in ANC and moved to NYC a couple of years ago and with the pandemic haven't flown much at all lately. I rarely fly for work, maybe one trip to the UK every other year. In an indicative travel year I expect to fly something like one or two trips to ANC, one or two trips to SEA, PDX, or SFO, one or two trips to the Caribbean, 1-2 miscellaneous midsize US/canadian cities or leisure destinations, and one trip to Europe, Africa, or Asia, sometimes paid and sometimes using airline miles, chase UR, or amex MR. I also usually make a couple of trips to BOS and DC via amtrak though I would be willing to make these air segments if I were on the bubble between status tiers. In general I am more constrained by vacation time and travel friction than by cash but do prefer to feel like I'm getting good value, so I tend to only purchase paid upgrades if the cost difference is modest. Additionally EWR is considerably less convenient than LGA or JFK for me using public transit or rideshare.
I'm mostly nixing UA because I want to avoid EWR, but I wonder if it makes sense for me to mostly fly DL instead of AS, or to use AA as my primary program to open up B6 for transcons, east coast, and Caribbean flights.
I'm mostly nixing UA because I want to avoid EWR, but I wonder if it makes sense for me to mostly fly DL instead of AS, or to use AA as my primary program to open up B6 for transcons, east coast, and Caribbean flights.
#2
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,329
With the latest announcement, AS plans to only fly to SEA, PDX, SFO and SAN from JFK. If I were you, I would stick with AS Mileage Plan, flying AS when convenient, and then fill in that gaps with AA (credited to AS).
Are you hoping to maintain some level of status? If you aren't aiming for at least MVPG, it's not really worth pursuing status and it would make sense to remain a free agent and just to look for the best value on a flight by flight basis.
Are you hoping to maintain some level of status? If you aren't aiming for at least MVPG, it's not really worth pursuing status and it would make sense to remain a free agent and just to look for the best value on a flight by flight basis.
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: ANC, NYC
Posts: 327
I'm interested in making my flying experience pleasant/consistent and occasionally earning enough RDM for international business class. A lot of the airport experience I think I can cover with credit card perks though so I'm not sure status for lounges etc is super important. But I am concerned that if I spread my RDM across a bunch of carriers that it will take forever to get award tickets.
#4
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,329
Obviously, things can change, but based on that statement alone, AS Mileage Plan is the obvious choice. They offer the best mileage redemption (IMHO) of any US carrier. Like I said, fly AA to fill in the gaps when AS doesn't work and credit everything to AS. You should have no problem building up a nice balance of miles.
#5
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 1,485
Obviously, things can change, but based on that statement alone, AS Mileage Plan is the obvious choice. They offer the best mileage redemption (IMHO) of any US carrier. Like I said, fly AA to fill in the gaps when AS doesn't work and credit everything to AS. You should have no problem building up a nice balance of miles.
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,375
And how many places do you think aa flies out of NYC now that it is handing over much of their NYC flying to JetBlue? It seems like he is mostly a leisure traveler for non transcons stuff. It's basically b6, dl and ua out of NYC for leisure travel. Depends on his purchasing habits, there can be different way to elite status. He should consider any airline that he can credit miles to if he flies a lot of leisure and transcons stuff out of nyc. I picked Asiana and it works great for me. I got star alliance gold with just some business class flights on ua and other star alliance carriers.
I also don’t think I would want to do lots of one stops in UA hubs for leisure travel out of LGA. Seems like built in travel friction to me.
DL is not really an option for “reasonable international business class redemptions” on their own metal or partner thanks to no award charts, UA is trending that way with no notice devaluations, AA may follow. International programs won’t do much if you’re flying on cheap USA domestic fare classes.
I’d probably pick AS for earning and bank AA and AS there, fly a combination of AS/AA/B6 (B6 points won’t expire). Worst case… you can actually buy AS miles. For the moment it’s the most reasonable path for that kind of earning/redemption pattern. That being said, programs change.
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: ANC, NYC
Posts: 327
Does the AA/B6 partnership allow crediting AA marketed flights on B6 metal to AS?
#12
Join Date: Apr 2003
Programs: B6 Mosaic, Bonvoy LT Titanium (x SPG LT), IHG Spire, UA Silver
Posts: 5,844
#13
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,329
You would be wrong. Perhaps we simply have different definitions of what a strong presence is?
Love the insult and your attitude in general . Folks like you really help strengthen the FlyerTalk community.
Love the insult and your attitude in general . Folks like you really help strengthen the FlyerTalk community.
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 20,984
I'm interested in making my flying experience pleasant/consistent and occasionally earning enough RDM for international business class. A lot of the airport experience I think I can cover with credit card perks though so I'm not sure status for lounges etc is super important. But I am concerned that if I spread my RDM across a bunch of carriers that it will take forever to get award tickets.
AA, for AA flights, is a revenue based ffp. AS a distance based ffp. For many folk that makes AS better earn to burn when considering awards as the ffp objective.
But buying a ticket on an airline just to get ff miles may be poor value for money. If earning many ff miles by cc spend the ff miles from airline flights are less important
A map from Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
https://www.awardhacker.com/#f=JFK&t...=1&c=j&s=1&p=1
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 12,591
I'm interested in making my flying experience pleasant/consistent and occasionally earning enough RDM for international business class. A lot of the airport experience I think I can cover with credit card perks though so I'm not sure status for lounges etc is super important. But I am concerned that if I spread my RDM across a bunch of carriers that it will take forever to get award tickets.