patrickthompson24

Sorry to start a thread again on a potentially worn out topic, but looking for some advice that a just can't piece together from all my research!

I am based in Belfast, NI. Spend about 75% of my year travelling with work in the US, and the rest travelling UK/Europe.
I have been UA Gold for several years, taking care of my 10-15 Transatlantic flights per year, plus any internal US (with the option of US Air, which is often cheaper), and have recently started using BA for my UK/Europe flying since BMI (previously SA) were bought over.

I have considered it time to switch to OW for everything, but have been reluctant to use AA for my US internal (which, granted, i have never done) as i have heard of them having the oldest fleet, and certainly havent enjoyed their old 767's transatlantic.
But now with the merger of US, OW really makes sense.

That leads me to my question. AAdvantage or Executive Club?
My reasons for loving UA were;
CPUs domestically, and the occasional INTL upgrade.
LOADS of baggage. 3x 70lbs which is use every Oz of (musician..)

The advantages i see for BA are;
Lounge access for any flight (which means i could use AA lounges when in US domestic)
Premium Economy cabin for Intl
Spacious and comfortable planes, with the brilliant BA cust service.

and for AA;
seems to be easier to reach the top tier executive Platinum status (i generally hit 100 segments a year combining UA and BA), which then entitles you to 8 upgrades, plus they do CPU's right?
Can use miles to upgrade any ticket (BA just full fare?)

As you can see I am still weighing up both options.
A winning factor would be if either Airline would offer status match, or an elite challenge to get elite quickly. Do you know if either airline is likely to offer this?

Any info or opinions is greatly appreciated.
Good to be part of a great forum!

Long Zhiren

I am in your same shoes except that my wife doesn't like AA, for reasons that are unintelligible to me, so I'm toughing it out in UA despite UA's record production of reasons to leave. Wife is always right, so I'll stick with her instincts. :-) AA is retiring its MD-80 fleet this year and receiving lots of new Boeings these days so the "old fleet" business is obsolete news.

I think this is your decision point. With AA platinum+ status, if you are flying in Europe, you get to use the BA lounges.
I think the BA lounges are nicer than AA US domestic lounges. The QF lounges are wonderful by the way.
I really don't think you're missing much if you miss out on AA or US lounges within the United States except that you say that you're spending 75% of your flying in the United States. IMO, both UA and AA lounges are nicer than US lounges. I like UA international lounges more than AA international lounges--the LAX AA international lounge is a hideous dungeon. For United States internal lounges, I give AA lounges a slight edge over UA lounges.

Yes, but there are co-pays if the base fares are not full fare of course.

I've never seen an AA status match for UA gold. :-( I've seen status matches for UA 1k (=AA excecutive platinum), yes, but not UA gold (=AA platinum). Challenges are a different story but sound really painful to me--but a few transatlantic flights could fast-track that pain. US lets you buy status. Will AA inherit that US buy-up policy?

Volvic

Very nice analysis of the "pros". My suggestion is also to consider the "cons".

BA lounges.... great ones !
BA Premium Economy cabin for Intl. 100% true
but from normal eco you can upgrade only to Premium Economy.

So to fly in Biz via upgrade you need to have a Premium Economy ticket and all in all you could gain enough Avios (e.g.miles) to compensate the ones used for the upgrade.

Have a look at "tax", BAEC tax (read surcharge) is low with certain partners (e.g. CX), quite high on BA TATL (more or less 3 times the AAdv). BA tax is EU are really low. Redemption chart is based on a point to point concept.


So, you need to clarify a bit your main "target": lounge access, TATL upgrade to Biz, cheap award tickets.

mia

The second and third elements seem relevant to to which airline you choose to fly, but not to whether you credit those flights to AA or BA's program. Preferring BA aircraft over AA aircraft tells you little about the relative merits of the two programs.

Begin reading here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html

Long Zhiren

You might want to consider AA's 30-day Admiral's Club membership. That's a good, dirt-cheap way to see what's going on in the lounges if you see a frenzy of flight activity coming up like I just had on QF. QF lounges made the 30-day membership a worthwhile steal. AA lounges would never have made it worthwhile.

jbalmuth

BAEC Avios go further on short-haul flights and BA Silver gets you into AA lounges. AAdvantage miles currently go further on long-haul flights, and are therefore much more valuable on F trips to Hong Kong etc..

Not sure that I understand what you mean by brilliant BA customer service --- the BAEC telephone lines are typically closed 10+ hours a day while AAdvantage customer service has 24-hour service. US-based BAEC telephone help is notoriously inconsistent (read POOR on occasion), while the secret to AAdvantage customer service is to just call back if you get an inexperienced AAdvantage CS agent. From a NYC-based perspective, BAEC customer service ranks many, many levels below AAdvantage.

Personally I collect both BAEC tierpoints/avios and AAdvantage miles, and get the best of both worlds.

nux

You are confusing frequent flyer programs with the airline classes/products.

You can credit an AA/BA/other OneWorld flight to AAdvantage or BAEC. No reason you can't fly BA TATL and credit to AA, or vice versa.

You also need to look at the type of flying you'll do to determine what status you could achieve on each program.

patrickthompson24

Very helpful insights folks, thankyou.

I think for me the swingers are Lounge Access vs upgrades.
I am not overly interested in redeeming award miles for flights, as flights are always covered by work, and as mia said, i can easily fly BA TATL on the AA program.

Interesting that you can only upgrade from eco to premium eco on BA. Thats a kicker!

Thanks for the info on the AA challenge. Has anyone heard of a BA equivalent?

jbalmuth - admittedly, i have only dealt with BA CS in the UK and they have always been great. It is good to have insight on the US side of the company, thankyou.

Volvic

You upgrade only to the next class of service.
So from Eco to Premium eco* or from Premium eco to Biz* or from Biz to First in long haul flight.
* those two upgrades require half of the avios compared to "from Biz to First".

For historical reason (i.e. Bermuda II &c) I collected BAEC tierpoints/avios and AAdvantage miles and Airberlin miles. Only one FFP is the main, the others two ones are now smart ( ) ways to optimize otherwise cheap economy fares which usually generate low amounts of miles on any partner FFPs.

Boraxo

Also facing the BA vs. AA decision but my situation is a bit different than OP as my primary program is UA/*A due to corp travel reqs. My OW objective is primarily lounge access (on paid economy tix) and OW elite perks, as I can easily spend miles on either BA or AA.

I rarely travel on AA but have a few trips each year on QF and BA. The QF trips are usually SYD-PER in paid C, the BA trips range from short-haul UK to midrange Europe/Mideast (in paid CW).

However Mrs. B and I each have a large balance of AA miles, and often fly AS which has reciprocal arrangements that offer a few perks to AA elites. Not so many miles on AA though I use BA Chase as my primary card for spend (1.25 miles v. 1 miles/$ on Citi AA).

In the recent past I have been crediting to BA as Bronze status is rather easy to reach, and Silver is theoretically possible. But wondering if perhaps I should be crediting everything to AA and using my Citi AA card?

sunnyzip

As someone said you can fly any OW airline you like, and credit your miles to either BA or AA. The differences come when & how you want to redeem your points.
AA in general is better as it charges Fuel Surcharge on very few airlines.
Once you book your tickets, you can change it without charge if you keep your departure & arrival the same.
They have a zone based award chart so you how many points you need.
I have called them many times for my award bookings, its much easier to deal with them than BA agents.
BA has few advantages in certain conditions- You can book lot more Airlines thru BA website, if you cannot and have to call them, they waive the $25 fees, which AA charges for any phone booking.
BA has a Distance based award chart which is absolutely great for Short distance, NON STOP flights, you can fly for as low as 4500 miles.

there's a website comparing both programs: userbcpoints.com (go to Tips & Tricks)

sunnyzip

Here are the airlines where they Do and Do NOT charge fuel surcharge:

American Advantage:
Charges when flying on: British Airways & Iberia
Does NOT charge on: Every other airline including American airlines itself.

British Airways: Charges when flying on:
All British Airways flights except those wholly within Europe (For eligible Reward Saver Flight awards)
All other partners than the ones listed below.
Does NOT charge when flying on:
Aer Lingus (update-- Does charge but minuscule)
LAN
airBerlin
American Airlines (if completely within Western Hemisphere)
Flights within Europe
JL (within Japan)
QF (within australia)

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

BAEC does assess surcharges for BA flights within Europe. But BAEC members who have earned Avios within the preceding 12 months have the option of redeeming for a Reward Flight Saver, which has a lump-sum charge to cover all taxes and surcharges.

And BAEC does assess surcharges for Aer Lingus flights. Those surcharges are minuscule -- but not zero -- for EI TATL flights; the surcharges are higher for EI intra-European flights. In both cases, BAEC simply assesses the surcharges that EI includes on cash fares for a particular route.

AFAIK, BAEC does not assess surcharges on JL intra-Japan flights, or on QF intra-Australia flights, as the operating carriers do not assess surcharges on cash fares for those routes.

sunnyzip

Thanks...updated.

Firewind

patrickthompson24, I'd suggest Avios, first because of the distance-based redemption schedule. This may become more important to you as the years go by. Second, because of the lounges. Now, can you concentrate your current flying enough to make it to United 1K soon? As mentioned, AA is gracing 1Ks over to EXP while UA is floundering with Mileage Plus. If you can do this, and get graced over, I'd suggest then flying and earning on BA with your new AA EXP recognition/privileges/perks during your first year, and on BA with Avios status thenceforth.

Boraxo, were you not successful in getting graced to EXP?