Mileage Plus or AAdvantage?
 

First time post to FT and not sure if this is the right forum but here goes. I am patinum on AA and Prmier on UA. Will be flying business class round trips from SFO - Taipei in Aug, Sep, Oct and Dec. I have lots of miles on AA but not much on UA. Any recommendations on which airline/partner to use? I got my platinum in April using the platinum challenge.

Well, I'm an AA person, so I'm biased......

.... but I'd start by figuring out how many (status qualifying) miles I'd earn on the (at least) 4 BC trips to TPE (preferably using some creative routings to increase the miles) and see whether that, coupled with the AA miles you already have, gets you anywhere close to EXP.

AA "codeshares" with EVA to TPE from the west coast(SFO-TPE, LAX-TPE, etc). However, the Eva segment earns no Advantage Base Miles.

Not sure I follow - the AA codeshare (AA7961) from SFO-TPE earns no AA miles? If you buy the AA codeshare, you're buying AA (at least as far as EQM etc. is concerned).

I would choose a more "mileage-friendly" route - perhaps SFO-DFW-NRT-TPE, the first 2 legs on AA metal and then on CX (9,248 miles vs. 6,469 for SFO-TPE). Do that 4 times in BC and you've got 110,976 EQP ... you're EXP.

iwrbf,

Welcome to FlyerTalk. The Mileage Run forum is a place to discuss trips that are taken with the specific intent of earning miles -- but not for general questions about the programs. A better forum for this type of question would be MilesBuzz!, where general miles and points discussions take place.

I'm going to go ahead and move this over there, and you can continue to get great input that way.

Thanks,

Dave, a.k.a. dmfriedman
Moderator, Mileage Run

Thank you all for the feedback. SFO-DFW-NRT-TPE sounds great but I need to find out the total travel time cause I want to be in a semi decent shape to attend meetings on the first day:) I was also considering CX (for mielage plus) and SQ (for AAdvantage). Would these alternatives work? CX has a double mileage bonus from SFO to HKG right now.

Thanks and best regards.
IWRBF

I believe it's the other way around _ SQ is part of Star Alliance with United; CX is part of oneworld with American.

I'll let those more experienced debate the relative merits of the programs. Good luck and welcome.

-TD

You have it reverse - CX is AAdvantage, while SQ is Mileage Plus.

The answer to your question (if starting from scratch) is clearly Mileage Plus, since both SQ and UA both run non-stops SFO-TPE, no issues on mileage accrual, weird routings, etc.

And MP and Star Alliance are just simply better (more choices) when it involves Asia. If you want a high quality Asian carrier, SQ matches CX, and then otherwise UA runs many more flights into Asia than AA. Flying on UA and crediting those flights to Mileage Plus will have your account increase in a hurry. Either way you're covered.

What you have to balance is your "sunk investment" to date in AA.

Edited to add - you could ask to be comped to Mileage Plus Gold based on your Platinum with AA, and use these 4 trips to hit 1K...to even out your starting point.

I agree with all of the above. All things being equal I'd suggest UA and Star Alliance. Hope I'm not complicating matters too much by laying out other considerations to take into account.

My primary consideration if I were you would be which choice gets to 1K (United) or Executive Platinum (on AA). There is a big difference between those levels and the ones below them, not least electronic coupons that get you free international upgrades once you reach those highest tiers. I know more about UA than AA, but if the miles you stand to accrue this year fall short of 100,000 AA might be a better bet because, if I understand it's system correctly you also can reach EP by virtue of reaching 100,000 points and you get extra points (something like 1.25 or 1.5 per mile flown) for flying business class. (Someone who knows that system better might be able to correct or clarify what I am saying here.)

Which alliance you want to accrue miles with also might hinge on how: 1) how you want to use those miles (e.g., I'm mainly UA and Star Alliance but have recently taken a couple of trips on Cathay Pacific to cash in miles on American for a vacation in the Caribbean, a part of the world AA covers better than UA) or 2) where you mainly will be flying to and from for business in the future. If mainly flying from SF and/or to Asia into 2005 and beyond, UA and the Star Alliance are the way to go. Try to get UA to comp you up to Premier Executive based on your AA platinum status by calling the Mileagel Plus service desk at 800-325-0046. I've seen some posts indicating that if the first agent you reach isn't helpful you could try again with another agent, but in any event I believe UA's general policy is to comp this status if you have equivalent status on another airline, perhaps especially AA.

Having said that, if long-term mileage accrual and use aren't that important to you, the SF/Asia travel point doesn't apply, you place a higher premium on accruing miles in the short term, and/or you don't care about flying non-stop between SF and Taipei, you'll bank more miles by flying SF-Hong Kong-Taipei on Cathay. Your August and September trips in effect will net you 325% on the SF-HK-SF legs (note that you must register for this special) as opposed to 225% if you get Premier Executive on UA.

I'd add that I prefer SQ to Cathay because in my experience, while both are better than UA and AA, SQ is a more flexible airline to work with (quick to offer free hotel rooms if your ticketing means you must pass though Singapore for several hours or overnight, for example), but I don't want to distract this thread with that debate.

If I haven't talked this choice to death, you might try posting your question on the UA and AA forums of Flyer Talk. I think more people might read your question at those locations.

Hope this all isn't too confusing!

On United you now also get the 150% bonus for buying a biz class ticket (or even a full-fare economy). Those miles count towards elite status, so 4 biz class trips would easily net you 60k elite qualifying miles.

Earning miles on UA

The rest of your post I agree re SQ and CX, those are also interesting aspects. Also, US Airways helps the Star Alliance now in terms of Carribean destinations.

Even after the comp I thought he would have to get 100k miles to get to 1K? The comp doesn't count toward EQM, really, so it wouldn't help him get to 100k EQM nor would it lower the 100k EQM requirement, I thought. Is this incorrect?

I think you're right...i withdraw that comment! :)

The only way that could still work is schmoozing yourself into a "fast-track" type of deal, but on things like that YMMV...

Thanks for the nice detailed response.

You are correct.

Actually SQ does not fly non-stop to TPE. And UA has the same flight number but stops at NRT on the way to TPE.

This is the 64 billion miles question! I have about 400k miles on AA and can fly my family of 4 to Asia or South America using CX and AA.

I checked with the UA rep and he said I am about 4k miles away from reaching premier platinum which will give me 100% mileage bonus. Since you can't get comped to 1K (from AA's Exec Platinum) he suggested that I save this option for later. According to him this is allowed only once in your lifetime!

Thanks Thuderroad for such a nice detailed response. I think the areas of the world that I would like to fly the most is well served by AA and One World partners.

Yes, with the trips I have planned I can definitely make Exec. Platinum on AA because of the 1.5x points. 1K on United is iffy between now and the end of the year

No, in fact, it made me think about the best useage of the accrued miles etc. Thanks very much.

iwrbf