FlyingFrZ

Personally, I tend to fly paid J internationally.

Domestically, I primarily fly out of LAX in Y and go for an upgrade.

The dust has to settle with Alaska fully joining OW to see the new earnings rates and such, but some really good insight here so far.

Mwenenzi

You are only going to get an upgrade/chance of an upgrade if have status, miles, $ etc with the ffp of the airline you are flying. Not another airline.
If Oneworld does introduce a cross airline upgrade system do not expect it be good value or guaranteed.

cmd320

Given this information I’d probably give pretty strong consideration to AS’s program personally. The deciding factor will probably be which domestic routes you’re flying primarily out of LAX. If it’s a lot of west coast/AS flights, that would probably decide it for me. If you do a lot of transcons though, AA may still be a better option for the SWUs and J/F products.

PaulInTheSky

You are missing an important aspect. Earning and redeeming miles. You can surely forgo any FFP and become a free agent. If you wanna earn and redeem miles, spreading the trip all over is not gonna be a good idea.

footballfanatic

what about PDX-based folks? AS vs DL? How does this change the equation?

teemuflyer

Unless AS introduces minimum spend requirements for their tiers, then for some, achieving status might be easier than with AA and their EQD thresholds.

I don't think AA will allow AS OWS access to FL's on domestic only itineraries so that will not be a benefit other non-AA OWS' enjoy. As others have pointed out, getting upgrades will probably remain a perk mostly limited to FFP members flying on the same airlines metal.

Now for someone who might fly international, but mostly in Y or PE, then having the potential ability to earn OWS or OWE without the EQD might be useful in so far as baggage allowance, premium check-in and lounge access benefits alone.

GTITAN

Yes, I miss NW indeed. What a FFP!

Safe Travels

carlosdca

No I did not miss that.
The redeeming miles game got too old for me already. It is exhausting.
The differences between the programs are all subjective and all programs change their redeeming charts all the time. Not a consideration for me.

I have redeemed AA miles UA miles DL miles all without a problem. Perhaps not at the best value but still a free trip or upgrade.

fotographer

thought about it...for now... just sticking to AA.... was a while back considering crediting my miles to BA.. (have account) .. but I find there program a little confusing... (must be my old age)

FlyingFrZ

Thanks for all the insight

Ill stick to AA for now

IADCAflyer

I think if you're in the PNW or perhaps MAYBE SAN or some other cities, AS as your main program is a viable option. From out east, I don't see the benefit unless all the lion's share of your travel is to the PNW or to places like LAX, SAN, SFO, or some of the smaller cities.

AS has an interesting model. Many of us think of AS as a hub and spoke carrier wth SEA, PDX as their main hubs and with ANC being the gateway to the smaller Alaska cities, but AS has sizeable operations at SAN, LAX, SFO, and GEG as well. They remind me a bit like WN, but much nicer than WN. Come to think of it, they kind of remind me of the old USAir in terms of network (just on the west coast) but 3x better than USAir in terms of service.

Having flown AS a couple of times recently, and having had some of my family members fly AS recently, if I were in SAN or SFO or somewhere like FAT, I would -seriously- consider them over AA unless I was doing a lot of international.

fly747first

Great FFP but NW had the worst inflight product... F on some of the DC-9s just had a 34-inch seat pitch

CoMooter

I am one of those 2MM LT AA people that was already shifting OW business where I could over to AS, now it becomes even easier.

When I have to fly AA (when I start flying again...big question there!) it will be credited to AS. Upgrades and so forth were already far and few between on AA, not much of a loss there...

fly747first

Ok but the AS first hard product is weak... they don't have flat beds on any aircraft (well a few of the former VX Airbus aircraft still have angled seats but these are being removed)

rbAA

For me, I requal'd AA EXP during 2018 so I had that until Jan 2020 when I stopped flying. I matched to AS MVPG 75k early 2019 and credited most flights to AS in 2019, requalifying AS MVPG75k, as the higher EQD requirement for AA status was not something I could satisfy (my total spend in 2018 was $6700 of which $2500 was on AA tickets.) I had backchecked my 2018 flights to see what I would have earned on AS, and that convinced me to make the change. OWE status will be the icing on the cake next year when I start flying again, as my last trip was in January arriving back in BKK on 1/24/20. That was a SEA-NRT-BKK on JL coach which was fine, as I had a bulkhead aisle seat. I like the AS award chart better, but that could change. In fact, I switched to mainly PE or Y tickets, with some J awards, which worked fine for me. Since AA doesn't fly from BKK, I have to use CX, JL, and occasionally SQ, so all are AS partners with decent earning and fares. I can always do US domestic AS flights and have had 100% UPG's. I am LT PLT with AA and still have plenty of e-certs, so if needed, I could hope for an AA UPG domestically, but may never need it.

I suppose that if I had a lot of US domestic flights, I might see some benefit in using AA's program, but for now, this works for me.