Which program? AA or AS
 

I'm new to all oneworld frequent flyer programs, and is struggling to choose between AA and AS. I'll take some flights this summer and will get 38000 AA miles with a Gold status (hopefully Platinum if status challenge is open), or 32000 AS miles with no elite status because I'm not flying on AS. I base in east coast so I don't have too many chances to fly on AS, making obtaining AS elite status hard. But seems like AS miles are more valuable than AA miles, so any idea on which one to choose?

Any suggestion will be much appreciated.

AS miles are extremely valuable. However they now have significant AS metal segment requirements to achieve status (100k requires 24 segments and 75k requires 12).

Without status the miles earned are significantly less, making it a less attractive proposition. Furthermore, IMO, flying domestically in the US without status is a horrible experience (unless you are regularly paying for premium cabin) so I think that unless you can actually fly AS enough to hit the segment requirements, it's not that useful of a program any more. I dropped them in favor of AA when I moved from SF to Phoenix for this reason -- they don't serve PHX well at all (I refuse to connect through the west coast for every trip that I take). AS is basically a regional airline; if you don't live on the west coast or in Alaska they just aren't that useful.

"Miles being more valuable" is entirely subjective and depends on how you're going to earn and use the miles. It's not like 30 or 40k of either AS miles or AA miles will get you a first class trip around the world.

So unless there's a very specific redemption you're planning where AS would be a runaway winner I would probably stick with AA, since you can earn status and are east coast based. And of course AA's new Loyalty Points system is all spend based with lots of opportunities to earn additional LP's towards status with credit card spend, shopping portals, etc.

Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll go with AAdvantage. I live in Columbus right now and AS only operate a daily SEA-CMH flight. There's no reason for me to go to settle frequently so AA should be a better option for me.

Obviously you should take whichever flights are most convenient to you. The real question is where to credit them. If you could still achieve and maintain AS status using partner travel, AS would be a reasonable option (since AS and AA have some reciprocal status benefits). But since you can't, unless you will meet the AS metal segment requirement you are probably better off crediting to AA.

Yeah now I think AA should be better for me. I checked miles required to redeem a first class ticket to Asia Region 2(how AA classify Asian destinations), and you need 10k less AS miles than AA miles. That's why I think AS miles is more valuable. But as what you pointed out, AA loyalty point can be earned even without flying. I think this is a huge advantage over AS. I think I'll stick to AA now.

I have a fair amount of both AS and AA miles and if you want to use your miles for international long haul, I would say that AS is the clear winner for most destinations. The free stopovers are very valuable (even if you don't want a stopover, you can basically have your stoppver be your time at home between two trips, if the routing works out).

I think that AS is particularly strong to get to Asia (and a little weak to get to Europe, only because Finnair is significantly more expensive in AS miles than AA miles. But, still, with the stopover, there is good value)

The lack of multi-partner awards hurts AS a bit (in particular you cannot fly AA domestically to get to the gateway if the international flight is not on AA -- you must fly AS metal for those domestic segments, and their network is not great if you are not West coast based) but I still think that the stopovers make up for it. Once I burn through my last 500k or so miles, I will miss the AS program.

I wouldn’t look so much at the redemption side as the earning side to compare the value of crediting to AS vs crediting to AA. In AS’s program, you earn miles as a multiple of miles flown (a multiple that is always at least one for AS-marketed flights but can be much less than one for partner-marketed flights). In AA’s program, when flying AA, you earn “miles” as a multiple of dollars spent. That can result in wildly different earnings, far more different than the 10% difference in redemption cost you mentioned above. So I’d do your best to compare earnings in Mileage Plan to earnings in AAdvantage based on flights you’re likely to fly.

It’s not all that easy, and depending on your spend habits, the outcome could go either way. But, all else being equal and with plenty of caveats, it’s most often best to collect miles with the airline you fly most rather than a partner.

You can earn redeemable miles with credit cards from both airlines. AS’s credit card miles don’t count towards elite status.

I would agree with this, but status bonuses are a huge part of earning on both airlines, especially with high status. And AS has made extremely difficult to earn high level status if you don't live in a place that is served well by AS.

I would continue to credit everything to AS if I could maintain my 75k status (and maybe try to keep AA EXP with partner spend alone) but I don't see how I can fly 12 AS metal segments in a year (never mind 24 segments for 100k). Once you lose that status bonus, the earning side does not look as good any more. It's hard to believe that you will get better value crediting to AS with no status bonus than you will crediting to AA with a 120% EXP bonus.

Plus if you don't have AS status and you are crediting to them, you don't get free checked bags, you aren't on the upgrade list, and can't pick MCE seats for free (and paying for MCE every flight adds up really fast). Plus with AA status you can pay for basic economy and still enjoy all those benefits.

I personally think earning on AS without elite status could also be easy if you fly long-haul business or first class a lot. Business class on AS partners usually have 150% bonus, so you get 250% of the mile you fly. If you fly in first class this could be ridiculous 350%. You only get about half if you credit those miles to AA. If somebody don't mind paying for checked bags or not getting upgrades, AS could be attractive. If China opens up I can fly two round trips to China each year, but clearly China will not be open in any recent time, plus it's not always easy to find business/first class of acceptable price no matter I fly on transpacific routes or layover at Europe or Middle East, so in this way AA is at least a better choice for me.

JL business class (one of my favorites as they often have fare sales to southeast Asia) earns 245% on AA if you are EXP (and all count as loyalty points). It's only going to earn 225% on AS if you have no status.

Now, it's not "fair" to compare EXP earning on AA with statusless earning on AS, except, with the AS segment requirement, that's exactly the comparison that you might be having to make. My point is that the ease of getting status on AA might make up for the inferior earning charts (unless you can find a way to fly the AS segments and earn the status, in which case AS is the clear winner)

I didn't know AA status enables you to earn extra miles on partner airlines.....maybe I wasn't looking at the website carefully. Anyway, I'm not able to obtain EXP, platinum or gold are what I can get. Overall, AAdvantage is looking better and better to me!

AS status does as well. For 100k it's a 150% (of base) bonus and for 75k it's 125%. They are similar in this regard (actually AS earns more) but the segment requirement makes things tough if most of your flying is on partners.

The difference is that AS status bonuses are redeemable miles only; there is little if any benefit to having elite status for earning elite status (except that you get to benefit from elite status perks while earning future status). On AA, with its new loyalty point scheme, status bonuses do count towards earning status, so it’s much easier to earn status if you have status.

I had the same dilemma this year, but being in DFW, it’s really hard to not do AA. But when I can get cheap AS fares on longer flights in first class, I’ve cleaned up nicely in taking the credit as AA LPs. Less than 2K spend this year has already earned me 30K LPs vs less than 18K if flown on AA metal. The free lounge access with paid AS first class is a nice perk, too.