andersonCooper

If you travel frequently with these partners internationally and you are comfortable with them, it's easy to decide. However, keep in mind that most of the FFP benefits regarding partners flights/international hubs come to play in middle tier (in AA's case, Platinum/oneworld Sapphire).

aquamarinesteph

I've had way better luck using my miles on AA than on Delta. Yes, I can find a flight on both, but to date I have found a better seat on AA using my miles. YMMV.

MSPeconomist

It will take a long time for the OP to get enough miles for an IFC TPAC ticket on JAL or CX.

nk15

At this low elite level it doesn't matter that much either way, keep your expectations low. It sees AA maybe better for you.
For upgrades, flying out of airports that are not airline hubs give you better chances, so maybe think which airline routes you may have a better chance, although it seems probably about the same in your case. So probably better to decide on prices and flight schedules, who has the most convenient/cheap ones.

Jaimito Cartero

Not necessarily. There are additional ways to earn miles other than flying. I find AA has alot of credit card offers, online eshopping deals.

I flew in F quite a few times using AA miles, without buying a revenue ticket.

ijgordon

Honestly, there are pros and cons of both, and it can be a fairly close call overall, depending on how you value different aspects of both the airlines themselves and their frequent flyer programs.

DL's program has more draconian rules particularly for non-elites or low-level elites, including $150 to make any change to an award ticket, and no changes allowed within 72 hours (though they do make exceptions, but not usually for the reasons most of us want to make changes that close-in). That's basically a deal-killer for me.

Low-level award availability is pretty poor on both airlines, but I think with ExpertFlyer and flexibility, it's not too difficult on AA and partners. On DL you're more likely to be pushed up to a higher mileage cost for a redemption, but probably not always as high as the AAnytime Award. E.g., you might find a relative abundance of domestic coach flights on DL for 40k while AA might be 50k for the AAnytime. (Of course DL's prices can be stratospheric too, and they don't post an award chart so you often don't even know how many miles you'll need to earn to get that award you're looking for, as the price can change just like cash prices).

ijgordon

(Emphasis added). Minor point probably, but I don't think "since" is the right word here. Correct, you can't book international FC awards with DL partners. Correct, DL does not have its own international FC product. But the former is not because of the latter. There are programs let you redeem partner F without offering their own F (AS and AC come to mind, CO did when it joined Star).

In any event, not being able to redeem int'l FC with SkyMiles is another factor that keeps me from being loyal to DL. The vast majority of my AA miles redeemed have been for awards or upgrades to Int'l FC.

shimps1

If you are traveling TATL and looking to use AA miles you may find yourself extremely limited, unless you are comfortable paying $1000+ in fuel surcharges when flying BA... There is plenty of BA biz saver availability, but the fuel surcharges make it nearly the same price as paying cash. AA TATL awards are hens teeth unless your booking 1-4 weeks out or 331 days out.

jordyn

If you are redeeming mostly for international premium cabins, AA is probably the better choice. Neither AA nor DL has very much in the way of cheap awards on their own metal. I find DL somewhat worse in this respect; others find AA worse--I suspect it is route-dependent.

The tiebreakers is that in both cases, you'll probably see better availability through partners and AA's award pricing on partners is quite a bit better than DL's. The big exception is if most of your travel is to Europe as most of the availability you'll see is on BA with really substantial cash payments to cover "carrier surcharges" required in order to redeem the award.

arollins

Will you have enough redeemable miles to book an international business/first class ticket while flying enough to earn low tier status? I highly doubt it unless you include credit card sign up bonuses & spend. Best to collect points and redeem where you want, without being tied up to an airline program.

jayer

Where do you usually fly to and do the service frequency and connection points make sense? Do you fly enough to even care? There is probably an obvious choice.

beachmouse

The downside of oneworld premium cabin redemption can be working around high award surcharges you get with partners like BA. SkyTeam can be much more reasonable about that for tickets starting in the USA.

Gig103

What I've seen is that DL awards vary, where AA has only "saver" and "everyday". So on DL you might end up with a business award that's 90k miles instead of AA's 70k or 140k. Both require a lot of early booking and flexibility to get good rates. But if you plan to visit Europe with your points, AA is going to cost more since their overseas partner BA charges high fees on redemptions.

Neither DL or AA are going to result in you getting upgrades to first class as the lowest level of status on domestic routes. A benefit to AA over DL is that at the lowest level, AA lets you buy MCE at 50% off; both airlines give you MCE/C+ at T-24h if it's still available.

The reason I've considered DL is that the earning potential of points is quicker with the more flexible Amex Membership Rewards, plus my Amex Platinum card has Skyclub access.

Rowyourboat

Yes, but you don't need to be an AA Elite to redeem miles that way. If the OP is deciding between AA and DL, he should go with whoever he will fly more and value status of more.

@ OP - how much do you fly yearly? If you're going to be a low-level elite, it sounds like you can fly whoever you want and earn miles in other way to redeem for great trips. For example, if you want to fly on JAL or Cathay to Asia in business/first, it'll cost you at least 60-80K miles, and up to 110K (I believe). To earn that many miles by flying means you'd have to spend $7-10K USD flying on American/partners. Or you could get a credit card that gets you 60,000 miles after some minimum spend and get a free trip that way.

So if you don't spend *a lot* when you fly, then don't worry about mileage awards - you can earn the miles in other ways. Just fly whichever airline has the most convenient routes for you. It sounds like that's AA so you should go with them/One World partners.

dll

There are obvious pros and cons to both programs.

I personally prefer AA for the strength of its international network - redemptions are possible (never easy) on Cathay, JAL, Etihad and Qatar. That makes long-haul international travel quite nice compared to some of the options with SkyTeam - China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Korean. None of those are bad, mind you, but I don't find any of them great.

Alaska is also compelling but if you are heavy on domestic travel and NOT based in SEA it's quite a drag after the loss of DL.

Of the three major alliances, Star is really among the best ones for redemptions. Its mix of international carriers is quite good in most of the world. OneWorld is second and SkyTeam, IMO, is just not that great.