Sick of AAdvantage, which program do you recommend?
 

My last three trips I have tried using my AAdvantage points to book but each has been unsuccessful. For instance, I have a trip to Florida in ten months and I can't even secure a seat without being mile-gouged.

I have been using a Citi AAdvantage and was lured in with a high sign-on bonus. I live in NYC, so travel is primarily on Delta and lesser-so on United and American. For work I travel on a combination of all three and so I do not have an allegiance to an airline.

I'm only interested in miles rewards, not hotel rewards. Any suggestions which program might be best for me?

I find Delta you need far more miles to claim rewards.

A lot of people may say United due to the strong route network out of Newark, but I dislike Newark a lot

The best strategy may be to churn as many different rewards cards as possible across different networks, then accumulate points via spending on network agnostic cards (Chase Sapphire, Amex).

I am searching for Florida flights too for May - flights are cheap out of LGA ($200-$300 on either Delta or AA). A benefit of living in NYC is robust competition and relatively cheap domestic flights for a lot of routes

Moderator action
 

Thread transferred from Credit Card Programs to MilesBuzz! because the focus of the question is award availability, which is not controlled by the card issuer.

One might say that if you are going to burned by "Anytime" availability anyway, Delta is a better program, since they have a 2nd middle tier that is lower than other airlines' 2nd tiers.

That being said, I only redeem at Saver level, so that isn't a reason as to why to have Skymiles.

10 months out is far too early to be planning for award travel. The advice to plan far ahead, since award inventory is released 11 months out and is gone when it's gone, is outdated by at least a decade.

And layovertimes overseas that require a renewal of your VISA.:rolleyes:

When do you think is the best time? I'm a decade behind :D

Relative newbie here and would love get others advice about when to book awards. PM definitely welcome.

I think airline revenue management has made booking awards more difficult to predict. For a current example, I'm interested in doing an ORF-JFK trip 3/14-3/25 on AA. I've checked a number of times over the last ten days, and I can't make that booking although I can go a day or two earlier or later on both ends of the trip. Just to confirm a suspicion, I checked ORF-MIA and ORF-DFW, both also nonstop flights, and each one of them had the same blackout dates.

I suspect that these dates are predicted to be good dates systemwide for cash purchases so the revenue management software has locked the dates out for awards as they may be heavy travel days with spring breakers traveling and for the latter date, Easter approaching. If the prediction is correct, then those dates will never open; if the prediction is off, then some seats on each of those flights are likely to open sometime between now and 3/14--although too late for my purposes.

A second example: I was headed to Dublin in late November on BA and wanted to use Avios to upgrade my two WT+ seats to CW seats for the TATL portion of the flight. There was no upgrade availability when I booked the seats in late October. Thirty-six hours before the flight, boom, upgrades opened up and I got my CW seats.

Several years ago, I found AA had plenty of award availability. In the past year, not so much. Again, just a theory, but I'm sure the bankruptcy proceedings/merger talks that have been going on for about a year have had some effect on award availability. Will that change as AA comes out of bankruptcy, whether merged with US or as an independent entity? Who knows?

That's the gist of the problem. It doesn't matter what we think; revenue management software makes its own assumptions and provides award seat availability accordingly. My rule: check as early as possible for award seats--and then stay flexible and keep checking.

United and AA are the only real great loyalty programs, IMHO.

What about Chase Sapphire Preferred? You get decent "miles" on the card, and can then transfer them to UA, SW, BA, KE, plus some hotels. Gives you a little more flexibility with how you spend your miles. Plus you can always redeem them for any flight through their own system instead of transferring them.

Try getting the Southwest credit card w/ 50K bonus points for travel from NYC area to Florida.

Otherwise, UA is probably better to bet on availability these days over AA.

Also if you can drive/train down to PHL sometimes they have availability out of PHL to MIA on AA that you can't get out of EWR/LGA/JFK. I don't know where you want to go in Florida but if it is MCO then check the JFK to TPA route as well.

Been doing this for 15 years and have booked from 11 months down to 1 month out. Just gotta keep looking if nothing shows the first try. On trips I consider "big" like our surprise anniv to Europe in Lufthansa 1st class, I did it midnight the first day allowed, just because I was anal about it. But I have also booked 3 savers to the Caymans for my family 3 months out, and 3 savers to the coast 1 month out.

As to the thread topic,personally, I love UA much more than AA.

MileagePlus over AA
 

I have a lot of miles in both MP and AA, and am top tier elite in both programs so have full access to their best availability. Regardless, in most cases (estimate ~75%) I find better options from MP vs. AA flying out of ORD.

For instance, trying to book a trip to LIM this summer. MP had more options with shorter travel times, including the only r/t option w/o an overnight flight.

While AA can have some good low miles awards, when I do find better flights on AA/OW its for flights with such low ticket prices the redemption value is not really worth it.

For instance, I want to go to NYC next month. No good saver options from MP. I can use the Citi AA reduced mileage awards to HPN (15,750 AA miles r/t). I can also fly AA to LGA for $158 r/t (vs $328 on UA) but 1 cpm is not worth it to me. I'll just pay to fly AA.

Do you own booking comparisons and see if you get similar results.

I've found UA has more reliable award availability further out. I've been checking AA for Domestic & TATL summer travel from t-330 and it's been hit or miss on availability. A complete miss on the domestic side, unless flying in F.

However, two weeks ago I was able to book 5 seats in Y for this upcoming holiday weekend for MCO-ORD-MCO.

AA may have award availability on some routes, for some days, eventually, but for hopefully less booking frustration I'm banking UA miles. From reading though, actual flying frustration may yet remain to be a separate thing entirely.

AA is one of the best if not the best as far as being able to use for big international awards etc. If you are trying for Christmas or Thansgiving that always can be an issue with a straight miles ticket. I have Delta also and they are tough to get a good value for tickets. I dont know how they are now but Continental was never good for me either.

Robert

Options
 

I personally like to have options, so I would consider at least 2 programs - I know you mentioned you're sick of AAdvantage but from my experience, if you find the availability, the rates are usually lower (or the same at best) than MileagePlus. With that being said, availability could be an issue sometimes.

MileagePlus, on the other hand, usually has better availability and you can get some creative routings ticketed that you won't be able to get away with elsewhere. The much bigger Star Alliance network also gives you a lot of options.

In my opinion, any program that offers you one-way rewards is worthy of consideration. Both AAdvantage and MileagePlus have that. The rest try to make it very difficult for you to redeem those highly sought after miles.

As others have suggested, you can go ahead and sign up for credit cards that allow you to transfer to multiple partner airlines. I have used my SPG points for that purpose. Obviously, there are other choices. Good Luck!

Not (entirely) true. Try find QF F award seats anything but at T-331 :)

I suggest you also try Alaska Airlines.

I don't know what the OP is talking about. I've never had issues finding saver space on almost any flight I need, other than holidays. I think American has by far the best availability (maybe Alaska too).

Delta and United will definitely screw you with very little low-level space. When are you going to Florida? I just checked Oct and I see many, many, many non-stops at 12.5k each way.

I would say UA has a little better availability, especially when factoring US air for redemption partner, but I can't complain much about AA, though being based in MIA might help with award availability, so far so good. Might take switching dates a tad but not too bad.

In the US, I think AA and UA are both very good.

You can use Avios and get them ~350 days out, but you'll pay out the YKW since Australia is far far away...

Obviously, AA having lower prices is a points for AA... one would think. But also, yes, OW and even *A have too few options to South America. LAN just does not cover it all.

Doing a deal to PEK from IND, and FC one way works best and UA on the return,

Even got 2 FC on the outbound. AA was tight on the return, and UA open..4 months out. booking.

For me the key to finding good award availability is flexibility. I maintain balances in AA, US, UA and DL because I never know which will has the best availability for my particular trip. Next month's trip is with US miles, my last trip was with UA miles, my previous two trips were with AA miles. I even made a good redemption with DL miles in 2011.
And I never book anything more than 2 months in advance, because my life is too fluid and changeable. Obviously everyone's situation is different, but having flexibility is almost always a good thing.

I love Southwest awards because there is always availability at a fixed rate, so your points are always worth quite a bit. Also, since there are no change fees you save a lot when you do have to change dates. I agree it is not for everyone, but good as an option for domestic. I have found the smaller
Delta and US Air planes to be a much worse coach experience that Southwest, since Southwest does not have any CRJ's as far as I know.

But if flying out of NYC, AA is far better than UA as I also hate trying to fly out of Newark, NJ.
I dislike Delta as I've NEVER been able to book using lowest tier miles.

My experience here in 2013 (well, based on a bunch of 2012 redemptions for 2012 and 2013 travel). All of this is of course anecdotal since each of us just books a few awards a year and all programs have their strengths and weaknesses.

- Seems like AA has tightened up in the past year overall. United right now feels much looser overall. I've made 3 different international award bookings for UA seats - 2 using UA miles and 1 using US miles - within 2 weeks of departure. My guess is that UA would show better results on your search simply because they'll display all of their flights plus US flights online. Yeah, you'll probably need to go to Newark. Do you want the award seat or not? ;)

- The 330 day advice is probably still worthwhile if you're trying to snag a max-peak season trip or a highly in-demand premium cabin. But it's completely not necessary on a mundane domestic U.S. flight. In fact, you may want to wait and price that NYC-Florida itin: it might be better to just buy it and save the miles.

- To go further, sometimes the *best* time to book award seats is within a few days of departure. Doesn't really help you for a trip you want to book a year in advance, but this is where holding a high enough elite status to minimize or eliminate award booking fees can be very helpful. Book a tolerable itin as soon as you find it: they keep looking for the "perfect" itin all the way up till the time of the trip.

- Long-range, I'll probably continue to participate in UA as my primary U.S. airline on which to accrue miles. Biggest total network, one-way awards allowed, more options going both east and west (for me). AA would be my 2nd choice. I'm kind of assuming that US and AA will merge into the AA brand and alliance. DL would be my last choice; the R/T requirement is unnecessarily suffocating and simply makes it too hard to find a whole award at one time.

Perhaps some of the booking experts here can help:
What are the preferred / available travel dates? How flexible?
Origin options - NYC - JFK? LGA? EWR?
Destination options?
Are you willing to make a stop along the way?

What does "mile-gouged" mean to you?
I see wide-open NYC-MIA awards in Oct/Nov for 25k r/t.
Getting on the single specific flight you want is sometimes tough, but getting from A to B is usually doable this far in advance.

Most of the times I travel, my dates are set -- would it be better to use something like Amex Premier Rewards?

if your date are set and can not move i would focus on a cash back card pay for your flights.

As someone locked in to DL, I have to say, you're nuts! I still earn and redeem on AA (much the same way you do) but constantly find their value on miles to be great. And don't forget, AA allows you to book one-way rewards. DL doesn't. And you will almost never find low rewards on DL metal. In 2012 I booked 8 segments on AA miles, all low reward. United's issues are well know. If I were you, I would think long and hard about where you want to go on your trips. If AA or partner is a choice, stick it out.

Citi premier will be the best in this case.
You can get something like 2.66 cents back for every dollar you spend. (provided you have matching flight points)