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Originally Posted by mikelat
(Post 18951748)
So you'll be flying other *A carriers and crediting to UA but not doing any UA flights? Just wanting to be sure I understand what you're saying.
I can see the value of accumulating *A miles on a UA account by flying other *A airlines due to better service on other airlines. Just not sure if you can avoid UA/CO as much as you'd like for domestice travel. If most of your travel is INTL then I can easily see avoiding UA/CO. |
Originally Posted by mikelat
(Post 18951766)
I didn't think AS allowed for one-way redemptions yet? I thought you could do it but it'd still be the full R/T miles required even for one-ways? I'd be thrilled to hear I'm wrong though.
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The OP seems happy with US, which has lots of service from DCA. Switching totally to UA for the (single) *A program would make sense only if the OP travels enough to benefit from getting Y+ for free on UA. Otherwise, a lower tier elite is likely to be treated better on US and get a few upgrades, although DCA will be tough. Also, I would avoid UA until they clean up their merger mess. (When and if this ever happens, OP can re-evaluate whether to use US or UA for his/her single *A program. Collecting in two *A programs at this OP's level of travel makes no sense.)
For the second program, do not pick another *A carrier. Either DL or AA would work, although if AA merges with US, the miles would be combined but the OP would again need to find a secondary program. I normally would like AS for the flexibility to collect either DL or AA miles into the same account (with little international travel, alliance partners of DL or AA are less relevant), but in this case, with AS having IIRC a single flight daily between DCA and the West Coast, redemption possibilities will be constrained by the AS rule that you may only use a single partner plus AS on award tickets. The OP needs to think carefully about award ticket routings of interest to evaluate whether this restriction on using AS miles would matter much. |
Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 18954924)
The OP seems happy with US, which has lots of service from DCA. Switching totally to UA for the (single) *A program would make sense only if the OP travels enough to benefit from getting Y+ for free on UA. Otherwise, a lower tier elite is likely to be treated better on US and get a few upgrades, although DCA will be tough. Also, I would avoid UA until they clean up their merger mess. (When and if this ever happens, OP can re-evaluate whether to use US or UA for his/her single *A program. Collecting in two *A programs at this OP's level of travel makes no sense.)
For the second program, do not pick another *A carrier. Either DL or AA would work, although if AA merges with US, the miles would be combined but the OP would again need to find a secondary program. I normally would like AS for the flexibility to collect either DL or AA miles into the same account (with little international travel, alliance partners of DL or AA are less relevant), but in this case, with AS having IIRC a single flight daily between DCA and the West Coast, redemption possibilities will be constrained by the AS rule that you may only use a single partner plus AS on award tickets. The OP needs to think carefully about award ticket routings of interest to evaluate whether this restriction on using AS miles would matter much. -as was confirmed by UA Fan in response to mikelat one way awards are allowed on AS metal only (and have been for some time). -correct that all partner awards can include only AS + 1 partner, never 2 partners in 1 award with the exception of KLM/AF which I believe can be combined in 1 award. However, note that this still leaves quite a lot of possibilities on many routes. -actually, AS has 4 daily non-stops to/from DCA: 2x SEA, 1x LAX, 1x PDX. Not sure if PDX is started yet, but it is scheduled for September (I used the 30th to check frequencies). Those routes would easily connect all up and down the west coast, to Mexico, AK, and HI on AS's route network. |
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