AA vs UA - Chicago-based
 

Hi All! I am unfamiliar with ORD, so curious get some advice here. Thanks in advance!

Relocating to Chicago in the fall and am moving over from Delta. My main route will be LAX-ORD with occasional Europe/Asia travel. I mainly fly Prem Econ/Econ+ and my job extends corporate discounts to personal travel on both AA/UA. My priorities are: (1) On-time (2) economy seat width/comfort in domestic Econ+ (3) Elite customer service line responsiveness (4) Lounge (5) Seat choice w/ alliance partners.

AA Pros:
-Former Plat before moving over to Delta and have 350K towards 1MM
-Eligible for a status match

UA Pros:
-CC transfer partners w/ 250K+ points
-Have Silver and could make Gold w/o matching after finishing up my summer Delta flights

How long ago were you Plat on AA? AA service has nosedived since the merger with US.

AA has also been pulling back frequency at ORD, especially to Asia.

UA is the bigger and better airline at ORD.

I jumped shipped from AA in early-2016, before the AAdvantage cutbacks.

MsAlex Welcome to FT

AA will not status match, unless you have access to a private corporate offer
Otherwise AA offer a status challenge for a $ fee
Link----> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...challenge.html

Is your old AA account still active? FF miles alive or expired?
Is your old UA account still active? FF miles alive or expired?

General FFP:- Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!

The grass in not always greener on the other side

AA forum ---> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...advantage-733/
UA forum ---> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...leageplus-681/

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...solidated.html (last post 2017)

Thanks for the links Mwenezi! Both my AA/UA are active w/ >20K miles, so irrelevant. I left AA for Delta, b/c my main route changed from LAX/LHR to LAX/CDG. Delta lacks a direct ORD/LAX, so it's less a "grass is greener" so much as the grass needs to be direct.

For just domestic travel from ORD, I think both AA and UA would be fine. But for international travel, I suggest that you Google ""ORD airport wiki," and then click on "Airlines and Destinations" in the Wikipedia entry to see AA's and UA's international destinations from ORD.