OK, so which U.S. program has the most valuable miles...
 

...at this point in time?

Or, alternately, if someone gave you 300,000 banked miles on your choice of any one U.S. carrier, which airline's miles would you take?

This is a very different question from which FF program is the best, as it addresses only the SPENDING side.

It's also a bit subjective, but I would think the criteria would be heavily weighted toward:

* Your own view of award availability
* Your own view of destination selection (including alliances), and how complete that is
* rules that might enhance or, more likely, hurt the value of the miles.
* Non-flight redemption opportunities and whether those have appeal.

In my own case I'd value UNITED miles the highest (thanks largely to NZ, SQ and TG in *A), but I'm not earning on them because of problems on that side of the equation (NW beats them on website, sale fare availability, upgrades, and level of service to ATL).

Would think that LCCs might still be at a disadvantage here, but maybe others have different takes.

How many of you are earning on a different carrier or alliance than the one you think has the most valuable miles?

I really like United because of the *alliance and also availabilty. I have never had to go to a higher redemption level to get what I wanted. I got a seat to Europe 3 weeks ago for the 80K award for J class on Swiss out and TAP back. I could not get ANYTHING in J on either DL or CO for less then their standard award. No thanks....

That being said, I am in CO land here in NJ and most of my flights have to be on CO for ease and schedule. I have 350K on CO and 320K on UAL. I am finding it increasingly difficult to use anything but Standard awards on CO.

Cheers

I am undecided, but if given the change to post 300k to any program I would choose United. I love the Star Alliance web site for checking all flight options. Once you know all of the options it is easy to get to your destination using miles since you can suggest different routing to the agent. I have always been able to call United and book international flights with ease. I also like being able to fly Thai and Singapore as they are both great airlines with better than average service.
I also like United customer service. I am usually routed to the Hawaii center and the people that work there are usually very friendly and helpful. Not something that you find with other airlines.
My second choice would be AA for they seem to have more award seats than others.

You must be using a different Star Alliance web site than I am. They omit many flights, including the all-important UA 900 SFO-FRA and UA 901 FRA-SFO. I can never get it to show those flights for any itineraries to Europe or the Middle East. It always tries to shunt me off on AC or LH.

I think AA. They offer the low season saver seats which are lower than the industry standards. I have also had GREAT availability oppertunities with them! They also feature a unique F and C cabin so, it's C when I pay and F with miles - adds a little more to flying F!

I would go for AA
 

I have almost always gotten what I wanted on the days that I wanted....plus, my travel interests at this time are mostly in Latin America, and AA seem to fly into every capital on the continent.

On US programs it is either AAdvantage or UA MileagePlus.

I love the AA's Oneworld awards i.e. OW220C and the ability to use miles on carriers like TAM for intra Brazil flights.

On UA awards like Asia to South America through US in F for 150K miles are good value.

Might depend a bit based on my favorite destinations, but just considering global reach, award availability, and contribution to lifetime elite levels, I'd take AA miles over UA.

The lifetime elite opportunities are the tiebreaker for me. UA seems to have slightly better global reach and AA has slightly better availability across the variety of awards I've sought. If you gave me 300k, I'd put them in AA and be that much closer to Lifetime Platinum.

AA also has the HHonors conversion, which is about the only air-miles-to-something-else conversion I've seen that makes any sense whatsoever. (I consider it a basic push in raw value, but a great benefit to be able to diversify your travel awards if you happen to earn tons of AA miles.)

The other four "majors" are worth significantly less than either UA or AA, IMHO. Maybe that changes at the top-tier...I don't know. But any of the majors should treat you well if you hit top-tier.

Aa
 

I would take AA as well. It I could take hotel points, I would take SPG in a landslide over any airline program.

On UA it takes 1MM BIS for Lifetime *G that is comparable for AA Plat.

On AA 1MM earns you lifetime gold, 2MM lifetime platinum. But AA counts miles from any source, including gifted, bought, tier bonuses, and earned through credit card use.

Probably the best answer to this question depends on where the OP needs/wants to fly.

UA & *A have great reach just about everywhere except Latin America.

The advantage goes to AAdvantage
 

My vote goes to AA.

The AAdvantage program offers so many ways to earn and redeem miles.

Great conversion rate on points.com. Other FF program miles are valued lower
Can redeem miles for total vacation packages(Air,hotel, car)
As was mentioned, all miles count towards 1/2MM status.
Hilton conversion

I'd take the AA miles, with UA as a close second.

On a mile-for-mile basis, I'd rank the programs I'm most familiar with as follows:

1) AA
2) UA
3) AS
4) NW
5) CO

I'm not sure where US and DL fall in the mix, but I doubt if either would rank above UA.

True, but partner miles don't count. If somebody gives you 300k banked miles on AA, they count towards Lifetime levels. On UA, you actually gotta fly.

UA's system keeps the perk a big more exclusive - flying 1MM is a heckuva lot harder than accruing 2MM from all sources - but the side effect is that AA miles are worth a bit more in the "secondary market" than anything else. If I were a merchant wanting to bundle FF miles with my products - whether I sold cell phones, flowers, or whatever - I'd want to bundle AA miles if my costs of obtaining them were the same across carriers. To an end user, 1 partner AA mile is worth more than 1 partner UA/DL/CO/NW/US mile because it buys a slice of that lifetime status in addition to a slice of a free flight.