Nick311

Even if they don't honor your challenge, AA is the way to go IMO. With 100% travel, you will have status in no time anyway. In the meantime, pick up a Citi AA card and get Priority Boarding, a free checked bag and some other perks.

pinniped

This right here *almost* clinches the deal for UA. You have far, far more total options to/from Europe on Star Alliance. On an AA award, you're looking at AA, AB, and IB metal. Having to completely avoid BA metal and the largest OW hub in Europe completely diminishes the overall utility of AAdvantage to me. With Star, you have the whole alliance available to you with MileagePlus miles, mostly bookable online. No garbage fees...true awards.

True...but flying AA without status isn't much different. With your 100% travel patterns, you should be able to bulldog through to Gold status pretty quickly. In fact, your corporate travel agent may be able to turn your AF status into instant UA Silver. Low-tier at least gets you decent coach seats, expedited security, etc.

Quality-wise, UA and AA seem pretty similar to me. But the Star partners are a solid notch higher IMHO than the OW partners you'd be using as an award.

And it looks like you'll still have US in the Star fold...at least for a little while longer.

If you were going Asia quite a bit...or if you were specifically asking about 1K vs. EXP...I think the case for AA might be a bit stronger.

pin2bhatt

I am starting a new job that requires travelling. I am based in Dallas and mostly my travelling would be to New Orleans, Nashville, Florida area.

Few years back I was silver on US Airways, Gold on Delta and A List preferred on Southwest. I am all back to zero and no status on all of them.

I am torn here because the best connections that I could get are with United and American.

Now that I have to start all over again, I wanted to know which Frequent Flyer program I should choose. I would be making trips to India - Asia soon. So here I am torn between American ( one world ) or United ( Star Alliance ).

Clearly I would wanna use the elite status when travelling internationally but I want to make a nice educated choice.

Looking forward to your views- comments. Thanks in advance.

darthbimmer

It's easier to choose a loyalty program when you know where you're going. Right now you're imagining traveling all over the place, but once you start your job it's quite likely you'll find there are a small number of destinations you're going to be traveling to repeatedly. It may even be just 1 place you're traveling to weekly or biweekly. Figure that out, then evaluate which airline(s) offer you the best choices to get there. Fortunately you don't have to make your decision about loyalty programs right now.

Tavinder Hare

Are the international tickets paid or award?

Personally, I think American rules Dfw so it makes the most sense to fly American. I'd assume nonstop availability is pretty limited on united out of there or on tiny planes with limited business class seats.

DFWsakp

Nobody beats UA on Award availability.

billnye97

Truer words have never been spoken. I also started travelling weekly for work in January and I thought I would be travelling all over. Nope. Weekly to New York to go to Connecticut and when that client was over now I am going to St. Louis weekly. I'm based in Cleveland so it was kind of a no brainer that I went with United since it was a hub and all my co-workers used them as well. I did get the United Credit Card and that helped with the no status initially since the credit card essentially is UA Silver (minus the economy plus seats).

JPG3392

I can't help as far as status is concerned. But UA, with its partners, would offer the best chances for award flights on transatlantic travel.

PurduExpat37

Well, that's still a consideration... with the AA promo, I will probably make PLT before the end of the year, and quite possibly EXP. But with UA, it will take me quite awhile to achieve a status that actually means something.

PurduExpat37

I totally hear what you're saying, but due to the nature of my work, I will not know where I'm going until about a week or two before each trip. My guess is that I will be predominantly in the 48 States, with the potential to go to Canada/Mexico/AK/HI/Caribbean.

redtailshark

Forget AA and UA.

Only DL SM is....

:-: mejor en su clase :-:

PurduExpat37

darthbimmer

I don't know what kind of travel job you're taken, but most I'm familiar with that involve heavy travel do come down to patterns. That might be because you're assigned to a project that lasts 6+ months and you're going to the same customer site repeatedly. Or you're assigned to a geographical region and you primarily cover projects in that region. Or you're assigned to a project in a specific industry and, especially as you develop domain expertise in that industry, you are sent increasingly on projects in the city/cities where that industry is based.

Thunderroad

First of all, welcome to FT!

As for advice...

I strongly agree with this.

Beyond that, there are arguments pro and con UA and AA. But on balance I think AA is a much better airline these days, in terms of customer service, reliability, help during weather and mechanical problems, upgrade possibilities, etc. After 20 years as a UA with 1K (100,000 miles per year) status, I am now concentrating on AA as an Executive Platinum (again, 100,000 miles per year) status.

Nick311

I agree with the recommendations for AA.