Looking to switch from DL GM to similar levels on either AA or UA, mainly looking for better TATL business awards out of SFO.

I haven't looked closely at fares and routings for UA vs. AA to the destinations in which I'd be interested, nor how the business-class products on *A, OW and ST airlines compare.

But based purely on the UA MP and AA Advantage programs as described at the web sites, it seems UA offers more options, with more carriers which serve TATL routes out of SFO.

That and the fact that it seems you can earn the same miles on most *A airlines whereas on AA, you can't get qualifying miles if you fly BA? And Iberia flights give you some qualifying miles but not at the same rates as flying on AA?


The only advantages that AA may have is at the moment the 75k or 100k bonuses for getting the Citi AA Advantage credit cards (very, very tempting), maybe better low-level award availability (?) and access to Qantas A380 (for possible awards travel to Australia, assuming the redemption levels aren't too crazy).

Is there something I've overlooked?

Yes, in your case, UA makes more sense.
If you pay and fly BA TATL, you cannot earn miles at this moment on AA (this situation will supposedly change soon).
But, you have more options to earn on UA (or UA/CO).

UA, CO, US, LH, if I'm not mistaken.

Air Canada too.

But that Citi AA Advantage card offer is really tempting.

Yes you are correct.
What i was trying to say was that UA and CO will merge sometime soon.

At this moment, there are people who are getting UA and CO credit cards, etc.
Logically, UA and CO miles will all be pooled. (we dont know this for sure).
So, lots of folks in those forums are cashing in.

What do you mean by cashing in, using up their CO or UA miles?

I think this refers to getting several separate UA and CO bonus offers. Once the programs are merged, there will be only one set of credit cards and other bonus types to take advantage of. By going for the bonuses (boni??) now, you get twice as many options.

Out of SFO, you'll find the greatest number of flight options with *A.


....But that certainly shouldn't stop you from taking advantage of any and all credit card offers for which you are eligible.


Hit the best AA offer you can get, either 75k or 100k is a historically high offer for that program. Hit both UA and CO if you can, for the aforementioned merger reasons.


I think I'd probably base my travels on UA as my primary carrier. They have a big presence there, you'd always have Economy Plus as a backup to Biz. Only downside...there are a ton of 1K's out of SFO, so if you're more of a 1P type flier (mid-tier, less than 100,000 EQM per year) you might find yourself far down in the pecking order for waitlisted upgrades at the gate.

Yes, thats what I meant. Thanks!

Yeah I would be targeting 50k EQMs at the most.

There aren't upgrades on partner airlines are there? Or upgrades on international segments?

Ideally, I'd use SFO-FRA as much as possible, both for accumulating miles and for awards.

Yeah I did okay on domestic upgrades out of SFO as DL GM so that would be something I might miss.

As for getting the AA offer, if I go UA, I can't imagine ever flying AA or OW, maybe Qantas if it's AA code-shared. So I'd have to maintain those miles and after spending to get those miles, I can't imagine using those AA cards over my Schwab Signature Visa.

I haven't explored the UA and CO cards or what offers they have.

Might be too many cards to get though.

CO does not offer free international upgrades.
UA does not either...however, operational upgrades are at least "heard of" in UA.

No free upgrades on partner airlines.
Some CO elites have reported getting upgraded on US Air though in domestic US flights.

There is a program called "star alliance upgrade awards" where you can buy a high-fare (e.g., Y/B) on a participating airline and upgrade with miles using your Star-airline's miles.
There are strict rules for these upgrades. And the high-fares are pretty high!

Well, with your desired route being SFO-FRA, that pretty much eliminates non-Star from the conversation.

The question might then become whether LH M&M is a better program for you than UA MP. (I know zip about LH as a primary program.)

I think of the "pros" to UA as being reliable access to E+ on UA metal, low taxes/fees on international awards, fair SWU requirements if you ever hit 1K (or otherwise acquire a SWU from someone), and relatively good award availability on UA metal. (By "relative" I mean about as good as AA and better than CO, DL, or US.)

I think of the "cons" as a primitive website and Starnet blocking. The latter would affect you on SFO-FRA, as in my experience LH is one that gets blocked quite a bit to/from the U.S. (By "Starnet blocked" I mean that LH is offering up award seats to Star Alliance partners but UA will not book them for you using UA miles. The phone agent will say things like "that flight doesn't even exist in my system" - very annoying.)

I hear ya, but I still think if AA said "Here, please take 75,000 free (or nearly free) miles", I'd accept them.

Worst case: one of your Europe trips goes one-way in biz on AA and one-way in biz on UA. It's a nice backup to have if you're getting stymied on award seats in one direction. The AA-UA combo is powerful because both will let you do one-way awards.

Besides, there are always easy ways to add AA miles. They have a bazillion partners and there are always hotel and other promotions.

SFO-FRA isn't necessarily a must. Just that among *A, it seemed to the fastest option (shortest flight duration). What is this Starnet blocking, some written policy or just some suspicion of what UA is doing?

On OW, SFO-LHR on BA would be attractive but on AA you can't accumulate all the miles/benefits on those flights nor get them as awards.

I suppose Swiss might have a SFO-ZRH direct flight so that could be an option as well.

Yeah I'll probably give the Citi AA thing a shot, though I wonder about the hit on the credit rating if I also do any UA and CO cards as suggested.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-blocking.html