MrHalliday

same here... !

Yoshi212

And AA has their relationships with credit cards too with quite large bonuses.

DC777Fan

For sure, but beside bonuses single not that large ($500-700) purchases can earn upwards of 8-10k UR points with your Ink Bold card at times. (when OD is 10x). OD also stocks things like household cleaners, bottled water, paper plates, napkins, etc that anyone can use and we always stock up on during 10x promos.

chemist661

If you have the Cit AA cards, I saw Fargo, ND & Falls, SD on the reduced Citi awards (17.5K RT or 20K RT depending on what type of CC you have). Also, you would get 10% of that back as a rebate.

I haven't checked availability to/from those cities and we do not know how close/far you are to Fargo & Sioux Falls.

If you can't find T inventory (coach saver), you would have to spend 50K miles for one ticket in anytime inventory. Not sure what United offers in saver inventory.

One nice thing about AA is during the offseason (don't recall exact dates but may be Oct 15 to May 15--I would check) it only takes 40K miles to go from the USA to Europe/South America in coach. Done right, you could even add Hawaii to the mix.

Bottom line: YMMV (your mileage may vary) depending on various situations.

Love_to_Travels

I would go with AA because of their alliance with One World (especially CX).

GunsOfNavarone

I have been using the AAdvantage program for years and could not be any happier. The ability to see availability on line, many awards in first or business at discounted levels, to places I want to go internationally.

Last year we used AA miles to travel to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, all in first or business using AA miles on their partner airlines. The value for our AA miles was great.

infamousdx

I say AA because there are many more ways to gather UA miles.

ingy

unless you are working towards a specific trip, it's always nice to have numerous options

chicaloca453

It doesn't just depend on where you need to go but what timeframe. I know when I've needed to travel suddenly domestically and the prices have been $500+ each way, I have found UA close in is easier to find a saver award than AA.. For someone having the needs of flying last minute (such as family illness), I'd say seriously consider UA. I needed to make a last minute trip Friday of last week. With the holiday and aftermath of Isaac, fares were crazy. Nothing was less than five hundred dollars one way. UA gave me a saver award option where AA gave me a standard award. The UA routing option wasn't stellar, but at least I could do a low ticket. I will also add that I had the flexibility of being able to fly from BUR, LAX, LGB, SNA, SAN, or PSP to my destination and still could only find availability on UA and I lucked out and got it out of SNA which is closest.

I guess it really comes down to preference on the OP's part. Do you appreciate in flight experience more than ability to use miles (and to a point he must since he's chosen Delta for so long). If so, AA staff tend to be more pleasant at the moment, but the Economy Plus coach product is very much better than the AA coach product. Upgrades can't be counted on with either airline since the merger and AA matching UA 1k's (thus increasing the number of EXP's). So you should decide what matters to you. Is it a nicer economy and ability to use miles easier or pleasant people and good on time performance?

mia

I don't see this. In the USA, AA miles can be earned through banking (BankDirect), and through cards issued by Citi and American Express (SPG). I'm not aware of any comparable UA banking program, nor any way to earn UA miles ($1=1 or better) with cards from any issuer other than Chase.

onefasteuro

personally for being based out of MIA and with the citi AA, i would pick American.

infamousdx

Mainly through exploiting the UR mall with the Freedom and Ink cards.

eknock007

Also consider that many OW partners tack on fuel charges when redeeming your AA miles on those carriers. I have yet to pay a fuel charge when redeeming my UA miles on other SA carriers. Although I do like AA's Off-Peak awards which can also be used with their OW partners.

fireworksboy

I have ALWAYS had trouble finding anything but 2 stop flights for saver miles on AA and only had the same issue with UA 20% of the time. Just my personal experience.

hindukid

I am surprised to see the responses. UA availability is better than AA and it really isn't even close. I have looked at hundreds of tickets and its almost always the same.

I once compared a week long period using fortress routes. ORD-DFW on AA has about a million flights a day, but UA still had about twice as many availabilities. ORD-IAH has about 5 times as many availabilities on UA.

On international the difference is even greater. over 50% of oneworld transatlantic flights now have a fuel surcharge. Star alliance has so many more transatlantic flights that there is always more options. Currently looking for ATH-IAD. In a 2 week period AA has 4 days available and zero flight that do not have an overnight connection or a $200 fuel surcharge. UA has availability on all 14 days.

Aside from hib cities there is really only one good reason to choose AA miles over UA. And that is stopovers. AA has free stopovers at your north american gateway which can be valuable but really only when you live in a north Ameican gateway.