JaysonW

This is a no brainer. If you're going to live in Dallas, go with AA. Was just at DFW yesterday and couldn't believe how many AA planes there were. I know it's their hub and headquarters, but wow, they had three terminals out of five and a few gates at the remaining two. I think you'll have pretty much non-stop access to the world by going with American.

With that said, if you were living in Houston I would probably say the same thing about United.

pin2bhatt

I am leaning toward AA but again in the past.. I have had HORRIBLE experience with AA. Also, for me to reach a status on AA would take forever. The only Oneworld connection that is actually nice to Asia-India is probably British Airways.

United, I can take connections (non direct flights) for few months and hit Premier Gold on just number of segments. I could think of a status match later with AA. Also, StarAlliance has decent selection of options to Asia-India.

Your views ??
Thanks all for chiming in.. I really appreciate your thoughts.

UA Fan

I hope you are not counting on BA when redeeming tickets to India. They have started charging YQ.

DC777Fan

In the context of earning status, which is all OP has talked about thus far, he'd be on paid tickets, so YQ shouldn't factor in much--if at all. Definitely a concern if he plans to redeem miles to India, though Etihad is probably a better option if he doesn't mind the stop in ORD/JFK/IAD...

Jaxxx

Go AA, just did a 10 hour flight from united and got served no food, just drinks

UA Fan

I'd also suggest BA if you plan to redeem mostly domestic flights. Since you are DFW based, you can get some cheap flights starting at 4.5K to places like DEN.

I believe you can also earn very generously with them.

darthbimmer

Dear pin2bhatt: Discussions here on FT get so caught up in understanding and comparing the features of ff programs that newcomers might mistakenly think this is what matters most in choosing an airline. What most of us skip over mentioning is that route maps and schedules are huge considerations. As others have pointed out here, choosing AA is the obvious choice for you because DFW is an AA hub. You will be able to get nonstop flights, possibly several per day, to virtually anywhere in the US you need to go. Choose any other airline out of DFW and that's not true. Even if some other airline offers more choices for redeeming miles, which is more important-- the convenience of using those miles once a year or the convenience of being able to get where you're going on a non-stop flight versus spending 2x as much time traveling every week with connecting flights and the risks they bring?

tom911

The road to accumulate those miles, though, can be long. With 50K of flights on AA, you'll get 100% bonus miles. At UA, you'll be seeing 50% bonus miles. Do you trade off a lower accumulation rate of miles for better availability? Not an easy decision.

When deciding "who" to fly with you need an idea of how many miles a year you're going to fly, the routes, and what elite status you might be able to attain.

If the OP is going to fly over 100,000 miles a year, 8 AA systemwides that can be used on any published fare, without a buy-up or co-pay, make top tier pretty attractive there. They can only be used on AA metal, though, and AA does not have the route network UA does, so again a trade-off depending what you value the most and how much extra you might have to pay to use UA systemwides. AA will not make you buy-up to a higher fare and risk flying in coach, like UA, if you don't clear. No refunds once you buy that higher fare at UA and don't clear.

I've been EXP at AA for a dozen years now and have a 100% clearance rate on systemwides, including 8 so far this year. I'm also at 97% on domestic upgrades with AA and have never been below 90%. I'm pretty happy there. Award travel this year in Qantas business and Cathay first class have been among my best mileage redemptions.

mikew99

I can't speak to your past experience with AA, but I'm a UA refugee and I have been so happy with AA that I'm kicking myself for not making the switch earlier. Perhaps AA has been trying harder of late.

If you do choose AA, consider a status challenge to short-cut the process.

EchoVictor

1) Choose the airline with the most direct flights. You may not appreciate it now, but cutting hours off of your trips will be the best thing in the world once you're used to lots and lots of business travel. Not only are non-stops faster, but you're much less likely to experience disruptions.

2) IMHO Delta is the best major airline right now, particularly for domestic travelers. Best in flight staff (non-unionized), best product (new plane interiors, Sky Clubs, wifi on all flights, most comfortable RJ's with lots of FC), and Delta has the best domestic upgrades of all the programs with the only competition being probably Exec Plat on AA. As Diamond on Delta I usually get upgraded everywhere, including transcons (though sometimes have to burn a SWU).

Yes, the miles are very tough to use on Delta, which is why I split my strategy and try to earn as many miles as possible w/ Chase Sapphire Preferred. But the convenience for me of lots of non-stops from NYC and great service and upgrades outweighs this. And I'm still able to find lots of great awards (I'm on a low business award on Alitalia and am sitting on the beach in Mykonos right now fyi).

toomanybooks

Also look at the Amex Business Rewards Gold card. 3x Membership Rewards points per dollar on airfare spend. And of course the credit card for whichever airline you end up using.

I second the idea of WN, if you can achieve and take advantage of the Companion Pass. Take someone free all over the US for a year+.

And agree that the airline with the most nonstops and best service to/from your home airport may trump everything after a while.

pinniped

There's definitely something to be said for this!!

Out of IND, it might not affect your decision too much since a lot of destinations would be one-stop through a hub. (In other words, UA or AA might not have a big advantage over each other...just depends on whether you like ORD T1 food better than ORD T3 food. ) But in ATL, it might be tough to buck DL and slog it out with Star or Oneworld if your travel patterns are indeed diverse.

I may enjoy a circuitous routing on occasion for the purposes of generating needed EQM. But if it's Thursday night and I've been on a business trip, I just want a nonstop flight home.

jr57

If you're traveling a good bit, I think you'll find that the credit card miles matter much less than you thought previously. Yes, they're nice and can help get you to your next award, but I wouldn't base the decision on where you have the miles now. Since it looks like the AA promo will be honored, that might be the route to go, especially if you're based in IND. From ATL, I think you'll find that nonstop options on DL are much more appealing after a few months of constant travel.

terpfan101

I'm not the best person to be giving input here as I don't travel for work, however after being into the miles & point hobby for over a year now, my advice would be to focus on AA now to max out the elite status, and do a mileage run if you think you are close to the next tier at the end of the year. After that I'd probably try and get some status on UA and mix it up to get your status benefits on AA (especially if you can get to EXP) and accumulate miles on both.

Out of IND, it's a wash for the most part as my guess is your travels will take you to places where you need to connect (be it in ORD, IAH, DFW, EWR, or LAX). In ATL it'd be hard to ignore DL's multitude of direct flights and I've heard the overall experience is best with them, however Skymiles is terrible.

And based on the experience of consultant friends, I'd say you're likely to be on a project for several weeks or months and flying there over and over before changing projects. Not sure if that'll be your experience. Hope that helps.

CrownRoyalForever

FWIW, I am pretty sure the UA Club Card is still available with the waived $395 annual fee the first year if you walk into a Chase branch. Gives you lounge access, plus other UA benefits and 1.5x on regular spending.


Cheers