+1

some travel for work, I work in order to travel (and eat, but that's secondary )

I will have a decision to make next year as well and it wont be easy since I moved up north to YVR.

AA EXP is the best status available on US Carriers. The eVIP's are very generous and the domestic upgrades clear with an excellent success rate.
We'll see where this goes next year with nearly half of 2009 counting double for EQM Right now AA still bends over backwards for their EXPs.

However: Over at UA, it seems like every shephard and his dog are 1K. By now your overall treatment is marginal at it's best and my experience on UA this year was not pretty. The 1K Hotline became very snotty, lets not talk about ground staff.

I got a Status Match to NW Platinum, the treatment was ok but the programm sucks. Now with DL involved... again, let's not go there !

Take the trip to HKG on AA to NRT in F and CX from there ! ^

Whilst the gf in another city can be good for your travel habits, I have to agree with Colin. Bin it ! If not, at least consider one thing: YOU are the one with the black cards and YOU decide which airline will be flown on vacation, business or even a stupid leg to PHL for a cheesesteak. If your gf prefers to stick with UA or whatever... let her ride in Y without lounge etc and meet up at the destination. Been there - done that - never again !

Cheers,
S.

To the OP, as most have said here, AA EXP is still the best domestic program for most especially if the routes works fine for you which in your case, ORD and MIA, it sure does. As to somewhat jumping ship, the only place I would consider putting a little more effort maybe on UA just to please the gf and your own experience. DL has horrible mileage rate and CO has too little upgrades to chase for out of EWR. How are you currently getting to LAS by any chance?

SkywalkerLAX, the best thing about being an AA elite in YVR is that your upgrade chances should be perfect unless maybe olympics and the odd cruise date during the summer. Nowadays for AA, YVR is 3X DFW and 1X ORD (738) for summer, 2X DFW (738) shoulder season, and 2X DFW (757) for the winter. I would try all I can to keep EXP if possible for midwest and east coast options. As for the LAX flights on AS, I do find that the $50 upgrade is alot of times an option for upgrading on somewhat off-peak times. EF will be of great help in this field.

Thanks for the info !

Agree with the above except the "pleasing the gf with UA" part. There are millions of potential partners out there but only one AA EXP Status

Im in the opposite shoes, well, I was in those shoes up until today, and made the final decidion a few hours ago when I booked my first trips away from DL.

Im a long time NW Plat, now DL Platinum, was looking to switch to either UA or AA. After a long decision process, I chose UA. However, in your case I would just stick with AA.

The main reasons I chose UA over AA is UA's Asian network and the fact they fly to DME. Other then that, I would have chosen AA.

Completely agree with other posters that AA program is superior to anything else in the States now, but in some instances like my own, where very specific personal travel patterns play in, AA looses a little bit. In your case, however, stay with AA! Happy travels

I'm going to disagree with ditching the gf - my partner and I are doing the distance thing and while uncomfortable, we're making it work with all the travel. We're even doing opposite coasts

He also converted me into a flyertalker

2000 miles is very little. You could disappear early one afternoon and do a short hop (500 miles each way). With the return and DBLEQ, that's your 2000 miles.

And if you didn't know about ELTRW until September, you're not that bad since it only started in September.