With the recent move by AA and UA to eliminate mileage expiration, I decided to re-evaluate what I felt was the best FF program. My evaluation criteria of programs have included the following items:
1. Mileage expiration
2. Ease and cost of upgrades
3. Award travel availability (i.e. how easy is it to get a free seat)
4. Award travel mileage cost (i.e how many miles does it take to get from A to B) and restrictions

This evaluation is limited to AA, UA, CO, DL, and US as those are the airlines I have my miles with and who I fly 99% of the time. Most of my travel is domestic so that also influences my judgement.

1. Previously, I significantly downgraded programs with mileage expiration as I accumulated miles far faster than I could really use them. This hurt AA and UA. With the recent changes, mileage expiration is no longer much of a factor. CO, AA, and UA now lead the pack with DL and US in the back (they both require a flight every 3 years).
2. CO clearly leads the pack. Of the 5 airlines it is the only one that does nor charge for upgrades, provides upgrades on all fares, and upgrades for elite members are usually fairly easy to get. I would put US second since my success as a Preferred member has been much better than my success on UA when I was Premier (the equivalent status). I have not flown AA much recently so I don't know how easy it is to upgrade, but AA seems very similar to UA so I would rate both 3rd. DL has trouble with its L fares not available for upgrade so they rank last.
3. Award travel availability has been discussed elsewhere on FlyerTalk and the statistics discussed (% of seats that were used for award travel) as well as my personal experience and other anecdotal evidence suggest the following ranking: AA, UA, CO, US, DL
4. Most airlines have very similar award structures. There are differences here and there (for instance, you can get to Hawaii in coach on DL for only 30,000 miles while everyone else is charging 35,000). US and CO have moved to some reductions for off-peak domestic travel although CO's regular first class award is higher (45K vs. 40K) than other airlines. US has upped FC to 50K miles starting in September which is ridiculous in my view. Restrictions are very interesting. AA seems to be the only program that permits both a stopover and an open jaw on the same ticket. CO charges 35K coach to do a stopover while UA doesn't even provide the option. I haven't done a thorough analysis, particularly for international travel, but my impressions (combining mileage cost and restrictions) would suggest the following ranking: AA, CO, DL, UA, US

In summary CO still does well - they were my previous #1. AA's move to eliminate mileage expiration moves them up to CO's level in my view. UA would be next with US and DL clearly trailing. Both US and DL have a lot of work to do. Moving to total elimination of mileage expiration won't be enough to help these two. Both need to improve award availability, DL needs to get away from the L fare issue (sorry for beating a dead horse), and US needs to bring some of its award levels in line with the rest of the industry. I'd be interested in other views and comments on interational award travel.

MileKing, a minor correction regarding upgrades.

If you are Platinum Elite with CO, you get your complimentary upgrade when you book your flight and when you are purchasing a Y or H fare. If you are using your Platinum upgrades, you can call up to 3 days prior to your departure.

If you are Platinum Medallion with DL, you get your unlimited, complimentary upgrade when you book your flight on ANY fare (well, with the exception of the infamous "L" fare). In that respect, upgrading on DL is better than CO on the platinum level.

I totally agree with you regarding award availability. DL needs to do something. However, I do think that getting award travel on DL is easier than CO (I am Platinum on both DL and CO). Sure, you can get the seats on CO easier BUT more often than not, you're going to have to use EasyPass awards (higher mileage requirement)instead of Standard or Off-Peak awards.

Swore I read that you have to account activity every 36 months in order to retain your AA miles (under their new rules).

Dorian

Dorian - yes, you have to have account ACTIVITY. This can be as little as a $1 charge on an affinity credit card; car rental miles, dining miles, award redemption, etc. So, while some airlines require a flight in order to keep miles from expiring, AA only requires the additon or subtraction of as little as 1 mile - no matter the source.

Cheers,

'toad

For international award travel I have compared AA and UA. Here AA really leads UA significantly.

Also it is important to look at mileage bonuses, where I have been satisfied with United. Including special bonus opportunities (like the double mile IAD promo, current Hilton promo), online booking bonuses, Mileage Plus Dining, surveys, current 2500 miles delay bonus etc., the bonus opportunities have been quite good (significantly better than with NW, the airline I was elite with prior to UA).

AA leads UA significantly perhaps in categories like miles required for award travel and availability of award seats... but it lags significantly in destinations served! That is one of the major reasons why the vast majority of my miles are with UA, because they serve darn near all the places I need/want to go at this time. Also, UA has the First Suite and the 747-400, two major reasons why international awards are a much better deal on UA than AA, at least IMHO...

[This message has been edited by jet (edited 08-23-1999).]

AusTXHiker, I'm curious as to the destinations you have been trying to get award tickets to on CO. I have only claimed a few CO award tickets and those have been domestic coach at the standard level (the off-peak awards were only recently implemented). I had no problems getting the flight dates/times I wanted on CO, even when booking only 2-3 months in advance.

One thing that your post correctly highlights is that the % of seats used for awards on each airline does not include anything related to whether those award seats were claimed using standard or full (i.e., EasyPass for CO) mileage. So, while DL lags CO in overall % of seats used for award travel, it may be the case that overall average mileage redemption for similar tickets was higher on CO. This would be useful information to know, but I doubt we'll ever see the airlines break out the data that way.

BTW - great thread MileKing. I like the way you state what your evaluation criteria is. I have seen many ratings by the advisory board in Inside Flyer, even ratings ranging from A to D for the same program by different advisors. So it is really good to know what someone is judging the airlines on.

Many years ago I also faced a lot of problems claiming standard awards with CO when I was gold with them. Part of the problem was that they pulled out of San Jose then, and only flew out of San Francisco and it was very hard to get the award portion from San Francisco to their hubs. Award redemption was a big reason I switched away from CO.

Re: upgrades, my personal experience is with CO, NW and UA. The first two provided unlimited domestic upgrades (on a space available basis). United provides 2K upgrade certs per 10K flight miles, plus additional certs for 1K members. But my impressions are that my upgrade success rate with United is at least as good as it was with NW/CO. Maybe I am more savvy now about getting upgrades, but CO has the dubious distinction for me for being the only airline where I received a first class boarding pass (with an upgrade) and was seated in my seat when I was asked to move to a coach seat.

[This message has been edited by pgupta011 (edited 08-24-1999).]

I vote for Onepass as well. I like their 20k off-peak domestic/Canada award and their large # of partners for Denver travellers (NW, HP, F9). My wish list for Onepass? mileage combinability among partners, on-line award redemption, and on-line real-time statements (I know you can see your total mileage, but must wait up to 2 months to see the actual postings) Each of these wishes is reflected in one program or another, so I'm waiting for someone to put together the perfect program. (would this make a worthwhile new thread?)

Just like real estate, it is location, location, location! I agree with pgupta011 on CO- I've generally had excellent success (except for first class sometimes), even at 2-3 weeks before travel or even the last minute, and even when booking multiple seats (3) at a time for transcontinental EWR-SNA.

MileKing - I am curious if you say that CO was your #1 and still leads the pack, why you fly with United. Is it the hub factor?

Good question, pgupta011! Part of the reason I've been flying UA lately is the hub factor. As you know, IAD is a UA hub and thus offers numerous flights to just about anywhere. DC is not very well served by CO. In fact, the majority of my CO flights have been shorthaul from DCA to EWR (CO is the only one who serves that route). Schedule is also a big factor. I was recently commuting on an almost weekly basis to YVR. Back in February when I realized I was going to be headed to YVR regularly, I looked at schedules on all the major airlines and found UA's to be best (CO and AA ran second). They provided the opportunity for me to arrive at a reasonable hour in YVR on Sunday evenings and return into DCA (via ORD) before midnight on Fridays. Both AA and CO would have required significantly more travel time at worse hours. Also, I believe the IAD double bonus miles offer had been announced and I realized this would provide a great chance to rack up miles! It worked out rather well. I will not come anywhere close to elite on CO this year (I think have 8 segments this year), although I will hit 1K on UA and will retain Preferred on US (30 segments).

With the announcement today that DL has modified its mileage expiration policy (see the Delta thread for info.), US is now the only major US airline which retains the "must take a flight every 3 years" rule. This helps DL and probably moves US to the back of the pack in FF programs amongst the 5 airlines noted in my original post.

I called CO tonight to see if I could cash in miles for a FC rt ticket to HNL for the PIP in November. I thought not a chance but I would see what they say. CO did not have a seat, but they checked NW and they got me in with no problem. My award cert will be in the mail this week.