Mwenenzi

jackmack65 Welcome to FT

One flight is not enough to make a choice for a ffp. FFP's are for the long term.
What are your objectives from a ffp?

AA will not status match. They used to have a (paid) challenge for faster status, but that offer in now closed. There may be some AA targeted challenges.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

jackmack65

Thanks. I suppose I didn't really make myself clear. I'm a longtime AAdvantage member and formerly had Platinum status on AA. I moved to a city where Delta has more options, and this year flew enough Delta to get to Silver Medallion. Since I knew I wouldn't make Gold even with this Europe trip and a couple other trips in Oct & Nov, I was wondering if I might be better off trying to status match on AA and potentially reboot my slog back to Platinum on AA that way.

I'm still sitting on almost 500K miles in my Aadvantage account and would eventually like to use them for a nice trip for my wife and me. It'd be nice to have at least *some* status when planning that, but I'll likely never be back to flying as much as I used to, and I won't be tied entirely to American, so perhaps it's not to be.


Good to know that AA doesn't status match. I'll poke around to see if I can catch a challenge if they're offering one that works.

Thanks for your reply.

ralphs

For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Economy award accumulation, redemption, and availability

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: About 25k/yr in economy spread across ~10 flights

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Discount economy. MCE/E+ if redeye.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 33% work, 66% pleasure. I have nearly absolute discretion on flights because I manage a small business.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Yearly flight to Asia (e.g. LAX-HKG-RGN) and yearly transcon LAX-MIA/FLL. Common holiday destinations are SFO/OAK, IAH/HOU, YVR/SEA, EWR/JFK/LGA and LHR.

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LGB is closest, but LAX has most options. SNA is also very accessible.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: None. I have 17k AA EQM. I have 63k UA miles banked.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: B6, CX, AS. If Jetblue was part of a real alliance or had a decent FFP I would probably join in a heartbeat because I live in Long Beach.

tom911

Alaska would seem like a good fit. Just like AA, you accrue miles on Alaska based on the distance flown, so having 2/3 of your travel being leisure travel I don't see how you could go wrong there. The upside is that they have a host of partners (AA, DL, BA, Qantas, Cathay) and Alaska's relationship with AA has actually improved some the last few years with limited lounge access and reciprocal elite benefits (early boarding, seat selection) should you fly beyond 25K.

Before moving to Alaska, though, I'd work on getting those 17K with AA up to 25K so you can at least use them for a domestic round trip (or 20K if you want to use them within Europe or within/between Australia/New Zealand for a round trip). AA does offer off-peak travel for 40K round trip and if you wanted to go to Europe or South America you could credit Alaska miles there until you hit your goal. You don't want to write off the 17K you spent some time building up.

Efrem

If you don't earn Gold on Delta, they will roll over your excess Medallioin qualifying miles to 2016. That should give you a very nice head start next year, though you'll still have to reach the spending threshold for any status level you qualify for on MQM.

JDiver

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

"Status match" implies you have status you wish matched, and as you know, AA doesn't offer matches other than on occasion to UA top status holders.

The challenge is closed at this time (23 Sep); the only challenges available at the moment on AA are those corporate challenges from a few companies that offer it to employees, or targeted challenges from AA one can not request or solicit.

Not having status does not preclude using your AA miles. The only AA fliers with an advantage over you with no status might be Executive Platinums, who have extended MileSAAver seats offered them other AAdvantage members, including Platinum members, can not access.

There are a couple of excellent threads in the AA forum with tips and informative wikis:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html

and

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2014-a.html

toomanybooks

Welcome to Flyertalk, Candecorndog!

Southwest is a strong contender for you. If your travel gets to the 5-6 times a year level and you have one specific person consistently to travel with, look carefully at earning Southwest's Companion Pass. 100% free for the second person, no blackouts. All details in the Southwest forum here.

ralphs

I noticed that you didn't mention AA Gold/OW Ruby at 25k - is the (unwritten) implication that the status is fairly useless?

25% bonus on EQM is okay, as well as 50% off MCE+. But I feel like the latter is simply an ability to pay less money to make an AA seat as good as a B6 standard coach seat. I tend to carry on, so none of the other benefits really convince me: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Possibly the nicest part of AA they will credit 100% of Asian trips on AA marketed CX metal, even at discount fare codes like Q. Under the rules as I understand them, I'd be missing out on 14,000 miles a year if I were MVP.

If/when switching to AS, when is the best time to status match AA Gold to AS MVP?

Thank you--I tried to read the forums thoroughly to answer any questions but I'm still learning!

tom911

I didn't bring AA up as it wasn't on your list of preferred carriers. If you want to credit Alaska to AA, no reason you couldn't do that. You would lose the option of crediting DL flights as you can't credit those to AA.

Have you priced out an AA codeshare compared to a CX flight? How much more are you paying to get AA miles? I've looked at some of those in the past (in my case deep discount CX that won't credit versus the AA codeshare) and the pricing was significantly more to cover bringing in those miles on the codeshare.

I think the bigger question is whether they'll match at all. I'd pop into the Alaska forum and look around for a status match thread to see if they do.

ralphs

I disregarded the ability to credit DL flights because I tend to buy discount economy, and I understand that AS earning has been cut back. In addition, because DL has cut SkyClub access to AS elites and has also been adding SEA routes, I worry the AS/DL partnership is on borrowed time.

Interesting, thanks for sharing your data points. For Christmas 2015, I found that AA-marketed CX is price-equivalent with CX-marketed CX. Good to know that is not always the case.

Regarding AA Gold -> AS MVP matching, I found that in the AS forum I have to say that AS's mileage boosts for elites are pretty nice!

Champagne424

Hello, I am thinking of making a change after years of loyalty to American. Thank you in advance for your input.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Reply: Upgrades, Priority service, international lounge access, quality of aircraft and flying experience, (meaning comfortable seats, wifi, IFE, cleanliness, service), availability of First Class award seats internationally.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: I fly about 100K a year, about 60 segments.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Reply: I buy economy and hope to get upgraded, on occasion I will buy Business or First. I also use miles to book business or first class.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose my own airline and class of service. I travel for pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: My travel has been evenly divided between domestic and international, including Europe, Australia, Asia.

6. What is your home airport?
Reply: SEA

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
Reply: I am an AA EXP, and lifetime platinum. I will re-qualify for EXP for 2016. I have 900,000 AA miles. I also have about 100,000 Alaska Airlines miles, but no status. I just got the BA visa and will spend enough to get the 100,000 avios in 2016.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: For the past 12 years I have been fiercely loyal to American. I spend more time and money in order to travel with American than I would if I chose Alaska, or probably a number of other airlines. I always did this because I enjoyed the perks of being EXP. However I am questioning if the benefits of that status are still worth it. Upgrades are harder to come by. 3 out of the last 4 SWU's I tried to use did not clear despite booking more than 6 months in advance. I was told it doesn't look good for my flight to LHR this week either. There are very few non-stops out of SEA, which I didn't mind in the past since I liked the EQM's I earned by connecting. Now, in addition to all upgrades being harder to get, most of the aircraft are dirty and lack amenities, the customer service is spotty onboard, as well as at the counter or on the phone, the Admiral's Clubs are overcrowded, and American's fares are usually higher. I wish Virgin America offered more routes and flights out of SEA, I enjoyed traveling with them the few times I did in the past. I will admit to getting spoiled after spending time in Australia and flying Qantas both domestically and internationally. The aircraft, service, and clubs were always enjoyable. I have had the same experience with Cathay Pacific. I don't think we have anything comparable in America, at least that I am aware of.

Currently I am thinking of switching loyalty to Alaska, and mostly using miles to fly first class internationally on their partners. I have never belonged to one of the other alliances so I don't know if the "grass is greener" with Star or Skyteam. Do I just have to lower my expectations, plan all trips 330-355 days in advance in hopes of getting the upgrade or award ticket, or just travel a lot less and only purchase first class tickets? I spent so many years loving the AA EXP benefits, I definitely got used to the nice treatment I received for my loyalty. I'm sad to see it changing for the worse. I am hoping there is another airline that is better, but is there one? Is this as good as it gets?

Mwenenzi

Champagne424 Welcome to FT

You will not get any better than AA.
AS will not get you upgrades on international flights. AS has a limited award routes.
Burn those miles before that devalue. Flights with first class are decreasing

All the legacy ffp's are getting less generous and will continue to do so. That is a fact of frequent flyer life.
Frequent flyer benefits are tending to cheap beer and not champagne. Those champagne days are gone.

tom911

You have a lot of issues in play so let me just address a couple so others can chime in.

I have over a million miles on UA metal and walked away from them over the 2012 program changes which weren't ideal for a leisure traveler. Just because I did that, though, does not mean it may be a good fit for you. You accrue miles there (and at DL) very differently. It's based on your tier and then miles per dollar, less taxes, after that. So, for example, as a 1K (EXP equivalent) on an $1100 fare to Europe ($1000 before taxes), you'd accrue 11,000 miles (11 miles per dollar spent). If you took the same $1100 trip on AA from SFO with a connection at DFW, you'd generally bring in 25,000 miles with your EXP bonus miles.

Now, if you do buy paid first and that $1100 ticket becomes a $5100 ticket, you'd bring in 55,000 miles at UA. See why UA is a better fit for some? At AA you'd get a 50% bonus on base miles for being in first, so around 31,250 miles total there.

If you follow the UA forum, you'll learn that systemwide upgrades there (6 at 100K, more with additional travel) are good on W or higher fares on international routes, so you have to buy the higher fare, which could range from $100 extra to $700 or more depending on route, and if you can't immediately clear, and don't clear at the gate, you're out the extra money for buying the higher fare. Also, UA is known for selling upgrades and that seems to be a constant complaint on the UA forum.

UA recently raised the award levels for some first class partner award travel (like Lufthansa F) while keeping rates lower on UA metal. Make sure you look at the UA award chart as they have different levels on some higher end awards when you move to partner metal.

Another thing with UA is their UGS tier which is high revenue and recognized at the check-in counters and at boarding and during irregular ops. AA has a similar tier but I get the sense the numbers are nowhere near UA, and you don't see special check-in counters or boarding for CK flyers (not yet at least). The UGS tier at UA also comes with some special perks like upgrading award tickets.

Also, while EXP gives you first class lounge access on international flights no matter what the class of service, 1K status does not provide that. I don't think it provides arrival lounge access either, but then AA only offers that at LHR anyway so probably not a major factor when comparing them.

I've always found UA award availability very good over the years. I redeemed my last chunk of miles earlier this year DUB-ATH. Took a while to zero out that account. My last big redemption was them was on the A380 in F SFO-FRA connecting to a 747 FRA-HKG. I've also done the 747 in F SFO-FRA. All these would cost more miles than what I paid in the last 2-3 years due to the program changes.

I'd recommend you follow up on the award differences and upgrades on the UA forum- you should find some existing threads covering those topics in detail. UA has offered status matches in the past to AA EXP flyers with a specific amount of flying to retain status, so you could give them a test drive without too much of an investment and see how they work out.

jackmack65

I had completely forgotten about the rollover MQMs. That makes the decision much easier - I will end up with a very nice head start for next year. Thanks for the reminder!

Thanks for all these suggestions. Much appreciated.

Candecorndog

Thank you so much!

Right now this is our 2nd and final travel this year.
we are seriously looking at southwest, for certain. I read about their companion pass and the credit cards to help earn the points to achieve. It was exciting and scary at the same time to meet The spending minimum.

We are starting much smaller with the Delta gold only because we have a flight booked with them in a couple weeks and the card already saves us in baggage.

If we feel like maybe, if we can meet the Delta gold smaller requirement for the bonus easy enough, we will possibly move up to the southwest...and, fingers crossed... shoot for the 5-6 times a year.