aktchi

Need some advice from the experts here. I had been American Airline's longtime Executive Platinum (their highest status you can earn by flying) when the pandemic hit. By common sense and on doctors orders (age + medical details) I did not fly for 2 years. Now I am ready to start flying. However, not only will my AA status have expired when I fly, but the over-all landscape is greatly changed. As a frequent US-India flyer based in Chicago, I notice that at the moment only United and Air India operate Chicago-Delhi nonstops.

So, I am reconsidering if I should restart with AA, or switch to either UA or AI? (Whichever airline I pick, I am looking at some travel without status, until I build up to mid-level that offers lounges and useful seat selection.)

If you have the experience, please give me your opinion concerning OneWorld v Star Alliance. Within Star, between UA and AI. For reference, I live in Chicago, and would fly to India as well as SE Asia several times a year. For precision, let us focus on the efficiency of getting Business Class awards (US-India), lounge experience, and upgrades (US domestic). Thank you for your opinion and advice!

superboi

If you are looking to fly direct long haul, *A is the clear winner for N America-India routings (UA+AI+AC). In addition, for one-stop you have several possibilities with LH and SQ.

On OW, the AA JFK-DEL 292/293 is the only direct connection. One stop options are BA, QR and JL (although the last one operates only a handful of India routes).

Between UA and AI FF programs, UA is the clear winner and even more so if you are resident in the USA and have access to US credit cards.

That said, you may get more responses on this thread: Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Based on whatever you've shared. *A + UA is the clear and outright choice.

UA's Polaris lounge + seats (assuming you're traveling J), *A's SE Asia coverage and because of more options/capacity to India - theoretically better award space.

SeeBuyFly

The ORD-DEL flight which you took quite frequently until two years ago was in fact discontinued in 2012.

aktchi

Yes yes that wasn't very well explained; good catch.

To be precise, while I did use AA's ORDDEL nonstop extensively in the past, lately I have preferred to travel Premium Economy on partners like BA and JL for an efficient way to earn requaification. ORD was well connected by OneWorld, and I was already AA EXP or OneWorld Emerald etc.

Right now I want to avoid third country connections due to uncertain and evolving Covid rules re transit, testing, quarantine. all of which could be passport-dependent and temporarily more important considerations than efficiency of earning requaification points.

In this environment, I miss the AA nonstop. AA forces a change in NYC, perhaps twice, not only change planes at JFK but possibly even transfer from/to LGA/EWR. In contrast UA and AA fly direct from ORD.

This is the detailed explanation for wanting to reconsider my airline.

knit-in

Based on your posts, Star Alliance seems a better fit for you. UA is a better FF program for US residents, compared to AI.

That being said, I have found Business / First rewards easier to get DEL-USA on AA than on UA. UA Business awards (at least to EWR) are usually available closer to departure date, making it somewhat harder to plan travel. AA also runs these web specials where you can get a O/W Business flight for as low as 66k AAdvantage miles (78k in F)

Keyser

Another vote for Star Alliance & UA.

AI never had a good frequent flyer program but they have recently been taken over by the Tata group so we can expect some changes in the foreseeable future. Having said that, the airline currently being run by Tata doesn't have a great frequent flyer program in any case so I'm not expecting the AI changes to significantly improve the program.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Non US FFPs will never be as good as US FFPs. Not because of lack of effort or desire but also the scale, volume, operation methods, commercialization of FFPs and a thousand other reasons that US carriers enjoy. US FFPs are light-years of the rest of the world in terms of value to the customer.

aktchi

Good point. I did some random checking for US->India Business Class awards and found that even with fewer partners AA was offering better availability at cheaper rates than UA. While I would discount BA due to their hefty surcharges, Qatar business seat was available for 70K miles. UA and partners appeared to want 180K-300K for a business class one way. This does not represent thorough research but still a reliable snapshot (I tried quite a few dates between now and December).

So Star has more partners, better network, and only nonstops from my home airport, but OW just might provide better and cheaper award availability?

SeeBuyFly

QR has a great business class, worth paying for. And while nonstops are obviously better if all other things are equal, UA flights to India can be very expensive in J. Neither the UA J seat nor the food and service are even remotely comparable to QR.

Plus, with Biden banning Russian flights, UA is going to be unable to overfly Russia---perhaps for a long time, who knows. I heard BOM has been canceled, and DEL-EWR landed in Bangor, ME for refueling. QR doesn't have that problem.