I am Platinum on AA this year after being exp for many years, and recently got a status match on UA to prem.-ex. I live in Boston, and travel mostly domestically. I am pretty familiar with both programs, but I am wondering how UA's upgrade percentages compare to AA's in my elite level. I understand UA's domestic upgrades are free and AA's I need to use the stickers, that doesn't matter to me, I just want to be chose the airline I will "on average" get upgraded the most on? Any thoughts? thanks!
In Memoriam
United uses UDU (upgrades if available--check on the UA board how well the upgrades are out of your home airport-BOS). UA doesn't use 500 milers or stickers for quite some time.
AA makes you pay for the upgrade with stickers (either from your AA account or buy them).
I would decide which airline works better for you. You may be able to request upgrades on all routes on UA but you will have Global Services & 1K's ahead of you. There is no upgrade currency as a Prem Ex. (I haven't been a Prem Ex since 2005 so I am not up to date on UA).
On AA, the upgrades cost "stickers" (500 milers--either in your account or to purchase). There may be a higher chance to get the upgrade since after the Exec Plats are upgraded since it cost stickers for Plats to upgrade.
AA makes you pay for the upgrade with stickers (either from your AA account or buy them).
I would decide which airline works better for you. You may be able to request upgrades on all routes on UA but you will have Global Services & 1K's ahead of you. There is no upgrade currency as a Prem Ex. (I haven't been a Prem Ex since 2005 so I am not up to date on UA).
On AA, the upgrades cost "stickers" (500 milers--either in your account or to purchase). There may be a higher chance to get the upgrade since after the Exec Plats are upgraded since it cost stickers for Plats to upgrade.
100% on United, thanks to E+. Seriously. Unless one is really late to book. Then you're in the lottery with about the same results in both, according to conversations with my extreme traveler AA colleagues. But E+ trumps. This could be a bit of a crapshoot for a while, though, for as long as it takes for current CO metal to get "upgraded". This may be a moot point, however, if the schedule for that is ahead of the full merger. I haven't paid attention to that.
Quote:
Yeah the Y+ is nice, but AA offers elites exit rows and bulkheads. It just seems like most of the UA metal has less f/c seats than AA. I'm still a bit skeptical about heading over to UA. Thanks for the reply.Originally Posted by Firewind
100% on United, thanks to E+. Seriously. Unless one is really late to book. Then you're in the lottery with about the same results in both, according to conversations with my extreme traveler AA colleagues. But E+ trumps. This could be a bit of a crapshoot for a while, though, for as long as it takes for current CO metal to get "upgraded". This may be a moot point, however, if the schedule for that is ahead of the full merger. I haven't paid attention to that.