IMHO, unless you have some elite status, they are about the same. If you have elite status or you are willing to pay the premium for Economy Plus, UA is the best by far for travelling in coach. On CO or AA if you have elite status you can fight for the exit row seats that have a little extra room. As far as upgrades, it has been my experience that is easier and cheaper to upgrade on AA and UA than CO. On CO it can cost up to $450 AND 20K miles depending on the fare paid. On AA is $250 and 25K miles each way. UA does not charge a fee, but not all fares are upgradable. Also with CO running sales on their BF seats, it is sometimes cheaper to buy a discounted Z fare than to use the mileage/fee combo. Also because they are selling a lot of discounted Z fares on CO it is harder to get an upgraded seat. So find out which ariline gives you the best itineraries, the best fares, and go from there.

With international travel and upgrades in mind:

For the no status passenger, I agree that UA wins with economy plus if you want to pay for it annually.

For the 25K passenger, UA wins with free economy plus access.

For the 50K passenger, UA has an edge with economy plus access for when the upgrade doesn't clear. AA and UA also give their 50K passengers business class lounge access alliance wide when flying internanally, with both Star and OneWorl alliances being superior to Skyteam in my opion.

For the 100K passenger, AA has an edge with more free system wide upgrades (8 instead of 6 on UA) and unlimited free domestic upgrades (still limited on UA). These certificates can be used on most low-ball fares and do not have a co-pay and do have a very high clearance rate, especially when used by top-status passengers. They are good for connections too...CO cannot compete!

For mileage upgrades, AA allows lower fares to be upgrades, but requires a co-pay ($250 each way). United restricts more of the lowest fare classes, but has no co-pay. AA and UA work out about the same. Both clear upgrades right until flight time, so one may not know until the last minute if their upgrade went through. But status passengers usually clear, and neither airline often flies with empty seats in business class.

AA/UA have similar Europe coverage, AA has a much better South America network, and UA a much better Asia network. CO has a good network but often with smaller planes and less frequencies.


CO compares very poorly for international travellers wanting to upgrade. High fares are required and upgrades cannot be done at the last minute along with high mileage requirements/co-pays (AA and UA do clear upgrades all the way until the last minute, and seem to upgrade far more people than CO). For the major flyer, the lack of free system wide upgrades is a big one. Think how many CO miles you would spend upgrading what 8 AA system wides cover.... Not only does CO lack the system wide, their miles based system is less favorable for the traveller than AA and UA's systems.

From an upgrade perspective, CO looses badly. Ofcourse, CO has many other things in its favor.

No, CO is actually rather competitve in this regard - AA also requires a co-pay, and UA charges more miles and restricts eligible upgrade fares to midlevel H and above. While both carriers offer Systemwide Upgrade certs to top-tier Elites, the issue is moot because the OP is not looking to fly 100K on another airline. Further, unlike AA or UA, CO allows for upgrade redemption on multiple airlines in addition to its own network.

I'd beg to differ. On AA you can buy a $400 ticket to Europe (off peak, of course!) and upgrade for $500 r/t, total of $900 (+ miles). On CO, if you buy a $400 ticket you're going to pay $900 r/t in co-pay, or $1300 + miles. In most cases, you will find that upgrading on AA costs measurably less than on CO. Of course COs product is currently a bit better than AA, but not having a 24 hour rule (like on CO) is priceless! Also, reduced mileage upgrades available (10K o/w with NO copay) on AA "B" fares, which are often similar to CO "H" fares, which require the full miles (but no copay except Hawaii). These B/H fares are usually significantly less than full Y fares.
I don't know much about UA...

Yes, AA has a co-pay, but how much is it? CO's copay is $400 more on similar deep discount fares.
UA restricts fare class, but not severely. Remember, UA has no co-pay. The average upgradable fare on UA only cost $300-$600 more than the deepest discount....so still less than CO's copay. UA only charges more 5,000 more miles, hardly a lot.
The ability to actually clear when one wants to use miles for upgrade is another matter....

Hardly. CO miles can be used for a couple partners. UA miles can be used to upgrade most Star flights....there are now star upgrades.

Dupe.

Aren't the mileage requirements almost as much as for a free ticket? I remember reading that the *A upgrade rewards were really really expensive. I guess it's still nice to have the option to upgrade to a higher class if on a paid business trip, particularly to upgrade from J to F. (BTW, you can't redeem miles for Int'l F class AT ALL with Onepass).

Really??? :confused:

Most SkyTeam carriers, including CO, have no F. AF has blocked Onepass members from redeeming F awards on them since CO offers no similar product.

What an alliance. :rolleyes:

(Actually, I misread the above, and thought OneWORLD, not OnePASS :) )

Are you sure about that? DL members can get AF FC awards, even though DL does not offer a FC product.

I think DL members also can get EK F rewards, or at least used to be able to get them.

Not anymore. This recently changed. There was a thread about this in the DL forum.

1. United has not rolled out Star upgrades systemwide.

2. Upgrades on United can cost up to 10K more miles roundtrip than for a similar trip on CO/NW/KL/CM.

I know, exactly.
But I modify my statement -- you can actually get Int'l F class on Qantas through OnePass, but obviously that's just a "regular" partner, and not part of the ST alliance. Nice award if you can get it...