MizLiz

Cross-posting with the UA/CO board.

After many lucrative years, I have decided to give up on AmEx’s MM program. The departure of CO from the program in September will be the last straw for me.

Now I must commit myself (and dh) either to UA, with whom I have had limited experience, or AA. I would welcome the views of those of you who belong to each. I have looked at many similar threads, and still can’t decide which is right for me.

Possibly pertinent facts:

-- We fly out of RDU.

-- We travel rarely for business anymore, and have no hope of status with either airline. When we do travel for work, we go into LHR, FRA, or one of the NYC airports.

-- Our goal is merely to accrue points for business class tickets (or upgrades) to Europe.

-- We currently accrue about 180K Membership Miles per year, and about half as many CO points on my husband’s Chase card.

-- We recently acquired a new CO card (Plus?) for me, and a couple of AmEx AA cards, just because they made us lucrative offers. I used them long enough to get the bonuses, and put them away till renewal.

-- We also have a lot of HHonors points and an HHonors AmEx but never use the points.

-- Award availability, award cost, and polite service matter to us, in that order. Hate being needled by fees, and I think AA has less?

-- We will be dumping our remaining MM points – about 200K -- into UA’s MP program when CO’s September drop-dead date arrives.

The temptation here is to just sign on with UA but my limited experience with them has been mediocre. I have been very happy with CO and, when I used them, moderately happy with AA.

Before all this, I was US Plat for ages, having flown them exclusively for twenty years, beginning when they were Piedmont out of ROA. Change is hard. Now I am just a dinosaur – and a semi-retired dinosaur at that. I would welcome any guidance in making this choice I don’t really want to make.

Many thanks & happy trails.

elitetraveler

Are your trips to LHR and FRA in premium cabins - paid J or F. Are you interested in Y+ products for your travel to Europe.

Out of RDU you have an AA nonstop to LHR - other than that you are going to have to make a connection unless you want to go to CLT for LH to FRA.

If you go UA, you would probably be using IAD or EWR for your TATL flights. UA has much better paid day of departure upgrade options than AA for TATL. Often you can upgrade from Y all the way to F, typically around $950 with upgrades to E to E+, E+ to C also available on a paid basis - one class upgrade E+ to C or C to F seem to run in the $500 to $750 range one way. What remains to be seen is if the new UA will continue this practice.

While AA is good with redemptions, UA is good too. I'm not sure there is a clear winner, but for non-status fliers who are buying economy tickets UA has more upgrade options internationally than AA.

I like UA's paid upgrade system as it gives you the option to save your miles for free tickets. Right now, I don't think you can count on consistently good experiences from either carrier particularly as a non-elite.

MizLiz

Thanks for your candid comments. We try to avoid Y. In the past we've usually managed free tickets, booking business out and regular economy back.

I need to study UA's paid upgrade system more carefully. Important issue. I appreciate your pointing that out to me.

Again, many thanks.

BTW, I see someone on the UA board has chided me for the cross post. I would like the views from both groups, but if that is verboten, somebody delete this thread.

miamigrad

It is, indeed, prohibited by the Terms of Service of FlyerTalk:
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q64

JDiver

Now that my colleague in the United Mileage Plus Forum has closed the cross-posted thread, this is the remaining thread by the OP.

Please AMP or PM us if you wish this thread moved into a more general forum if you wish informed input about several airlines.

/JDiver, Moderator

Post Your Thread to Just One Forum - link to this guideline
Don't post the same thread more than once. Our members read many forums, and weeding through the same message in multiple forums can be frustrating. Duplicate threads will be deleted, combined or locked.

elitetraveler

Take a look at the thread linked below re UA paid upgrades

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...1-edition.html

ffI

I think UA may be better for now as you can dump your Amex to CO to UA and build up quickly for an award right now. In future, you may wish to consider keeping a toe in both via Chase and Citi cards. Just keep signing up for as many cards for both as possible and build up a stash of miles.

Edwardvan

Except for the lack of E +, AA probably has a slight edge.

AAExPlat

I think the decision between UA or AA depends on a few basic factors:

- How much you fly
- Your mix of intl and domestic
- Your priorities

If you fly more than 100k EQMs per year, then I believe AA is the better program as it just provides better upgrade rates and overall service.

That is especially true since the intl flying then carries 8 unrestricted SWUs with it, and the domestic flying will be largely in F due to very high upgrade percentages.

Under the top tier, I believe UA is the better program IF you want free upgrades. If you're willing to pay for upgrades, AA is still better IMO.

If award redemption availability are your priority, then UA should be the preference as Star Alliance has fantastic award availability all around. Although AA is great on its own metal for EXPs, partner availability can often be more iffy.

Lastly, if you are flying largely paid J/F, then all the above makes nearly no difference. I would fly based on price in that case (and preferably foreign carriers).

IJK

The OP mentioned there was no chance of achieving elite status.

My limited contribution would be that UA has mangled my bags quite often given the relatively small number of times I've flown them. And the baggage agents don't seem receptive to complaints about damage. (I wonder why?) AA has provided a much better track record in this area.

Sorry, can't offer advice on international non-elite awards or service. UA has a modern wide-body fleet for domestic legs. AA is getting new planes (announced new buys recently), but for international travel AA and UA could be very similar. AA has their Flagship Service, but your
interest was in Business class awards.

Domestically, AA's pay-to-upgrade programs for their elites are different than most airlines programs, where elites expect to get upgrades for free and expect First to always be full. Might mean better award availability on AA, but have heard UA's award availability is good. UA has a plethora of extra-cost options, some of which bundle services, much like the phone/TV/internet providers, but which might be confusing. But they are there and offered.

jmj9905

Don't forget lifetrime status. Currently with AA you can
get lifeime gold and platnium wih all miles including charge miles. I don't believe you can do that with UA. In addition, I would reccomend you get the Starwood Prefered Amex. They give you 5000 bonus miles when you transfer 20,000 miles to either AA
or UA.

emcampbe

Just to clarify the upgrade possibilities on UA with respect to E+ - you do not need to upgrade to E+ before upgrading to C. I think with some true premium economy products in Europe/Asia, this isn't the case - UA's E+ is just extra legroom, seats aren't bigger, no better meals, etc. You also can't buy an E+ fare (i.e. its not a separate fare class like true PE products).

You can do Y to E+ for a nominal amount, or just Y to C. You can do an E+ upgrade at any time from purchase till at the gate. And even if you do buy into E+, I do believe that if you end up upgrading to C, you can apply for a refund of your E+ fee.

elitetraveler

"Often you can upgrade all the way from Y to F"

But yes, what you said and I said is correct, UA does offer double upgrades, etc.

FlyerChrisK

Unless you're very close to hitting a MM threshold, it's worth remembering that AA's MM program is in a state of flux right now. It's probably only worth transferring the SPG points if they're actually needed with AA.

UA offers much nicer perks for its MM program but BIS is far harder than CC spend.

emma dog

With no chance of elite or mm status, it doesn't matter one bit who you fly... AA, UA, US, DL, WN... just buy the cheapest most convenient ticket to your destination. Without being an elite you are dirt on all of the airlines.

Separate out your charge cards from the equation... Just use them strategically to get desired awards.