I am trying to decide between AA or CO has my preffered airline. I have been a UA Premier Exec for the last 4 years but I feel the need a change due to UA's financial situation. I am leaning towards CO due to their UG policy for elite members but I have been hearing that it is getting harder to get UG.

If you're UA elite and there's no reason to change...why switch? Forget about trying to speculate on each airline's financial health...they're all in hard times and it's pointless to predict the long-term futures.

What destinations do you fly to frequently?

As a CO* and PLT I find that upgrades are a strange animal with CO, if you buy higher fares you have a far higher chance of success than lower fares.

I do not know if either UA or AA offer this perk but if you buy "Y" fares you automatically recieve a upgrade to FC at time of purchase. The upgrade comes from CO's "A" bucket(which is CO's bucket for full fare first class), thus it always clears unless F is full a time of purchase.

Otherwise, I would say that if you are happy with UA, stick with them, as others have said it is too hard to know which airlines are going to survive and which are going to fail.

Dan

The CO President's Clubs are leaps and bounds nicer than AA Admiral's Clubs. PCs have free internet, free booze, and you can use Delta's and Northwest's clubs. I live in Austin and AA and CO serve the destinations I travel to most about the same, but I stick with CO because of the PC and the UGs. If you live/travel to a city served primarily by one airline over another, your rationale would be different than mine.

I will be flying to PDX, MCO,ORD, TPA and Quebec.(YQB).

In addition, I will be hitting a lot of conventions in different parts of the country...I will be flying out SNA or LAX when needed.

From SAN/LAX,

AA/CO both serve PDX via AS codeshare.

AA serves MCO n/s from LAX; CO does not.

AA serves ORD n/s from LAX and SAN; CO does not.

TPA would require a connection in either IAH (CO) or DFW/ORD/STL/MIA (AA).

CO serves YQB from EWR; AA does not serve YQB at all.

Not taking sides, but with CO you can also use NW and DL... I understand that there are some fare-based mileage-accrual rules that come into place, but they are an option.

Also, many of COs fares earn <100% EQM/EQS if you don't book on CO.COM.

Bob

AA has a better reputation regarding the ease of redeeming miles. CO is less predictable....I have not had a whole lot of problems but I have a lot of flexibility with my dates. Some believe that redeeming on CO is very tough. Living at a CO hub might be why I find it easier....

The EQM thing is a big bother and unless you fly 100% CO and are able to always buy on the website....you better be a big spender if you want to make elite on CO. Their definition of a CO 'best customer' is big spender ... not big flyer. If you don't fit their definition, I'd think twice about CO. If you fly skyteam partners on cheapie fares, you'll only get 50 percent EQM regardless of how you buy it. Again big spender is the key with CO.

I'm surprised you'd be interested in CO living in SNA...they are hardly big out west. If you're looking to fly anywhere west of TX, you could have difficulties. flying CO metal.

Have you considered NWA? Some consider it to be superior to CO OP,

The CO Pres club is great....NW clubs are good too... DL clubs are okay...but you'll only have access if you pony up the big money or become a plat and are flying international. As a Prem Exec you currently have that benefit when flying Int on a star alliance flight. Equivalent CO status...Gold...does not give that benefit...you must be plat with CO.

If you are Premier Exec with UA and don't fly 75K EQM per year, then you won't have Plat on CO and that will make upgrades tough. But since you seem to fly a bit already on CO and transfering your biz from UA to CO might put you over the top to make plat....that will probably make you a plat.

CO is reducing the size of the FC cabins at a pretty quick rate...so that will reduce the number of seats available for upgrade. There is no E+ on CO or AA ..... at least as a Prem Exec you are always going to have that. That is great if you are flying international economy....remember that is it very tough and very expensive to be upgraded from Y to bizfirst on CO international.... each year it gets tougher and more expensive.

I think that if your only reason for wanting to leave United is the bankruptcy... well I'd wouldn't use that as a reason....but I just switched from CO to UA last year. I'm not worried...but I might be a fool

Personally, if UA hasn't done anything to make you too bad, I'd just keep flying on them. I would redeem miles fairly rapidly, but I don't know that I'd be that worried about it. If they did go under, you would have all the other airlines lined up to offer you comped status. Now if it was US that you were going on, I might give different advice.

I still don't understand why you would want to switch. United is part of the Star Alliance which gives you a lot of choices for awards redemtion. The redemtion rates are lower than NWA, and are more easier available than on CO. They have a better route network to Asia and Europe compared to AA and CO, and the mileage promotions are always started by UA - if you are lucky, AA will follow.

Stay with UA.

One reason for switching is that I vacation a lot in Mexico and UA does not have a partner that flies where I go...AA & CO does. In addition, I will be flying to PDX and EUG, Alaska has direct flights to PDX from SNA and they are partnered with both AA & CO. I don't fly to Asia or Europe. In addition, I had a hard time using my miles on UA the last few years. I think the main attraction to CO is their UG policy and for AA it seems to be easier to redeem their miles. Unless you make IK with UA to don't get UG...at least with CO you have a chance...but I have been reading that it is getting tougher to UG on CO. I guess if I have to sit in coach...AA & UA would be better.

Years ago, I was primarily a CO flyer, but switched to AA when CO pulled out of Denver. AA has far greater frequency, and has a club at SNA (neither CO nor any of its partners has one). At that time, AA had better service than CO, but having recently flown CO, I doubt that this is true now. Nevertheless, the dedicated customer service personnel that AA has in SNA make it a better choice, IMHO.

i've been flying between pdx and various points in california quite a bit recently and feel compelled to point out that as is pretty good. your status won't carry much weight on nw or aa, but you'll earn a lot of miles, plus any time you can ticket with as, you'll only be subjected to $50 change fees.