Hello All,


I was hoping someone could help me choose between UA PREM EXEC OR AA PLAT based on this criteria:


A: I live in the Bay Area
B: I do not fly on business
C: I want the best chance of UG no matter how i must get them (i.e. comp, e-ug, etc)
D: I want the most opportunities to get bonus miles not based on status or promo miles.


Any help is appreciated thank you much.

A - Big advantage UA in terms of flights/routes and aircraft types.
B - Not sure if it matters. Both award full RDM and EQM on leisure fares. Both allow domestic upgrades off of any fare. International upgrading varies - not sure about the specific differences. United tends to tie a lot of its bonus mileage promotions to Q fares, which is a mid-level coach fare. Might be a slight advantage to AA here...again, not sure on the finer rules of international upgrading.
C - Certainly a lot more 1K's than EXP's in the Bay Area. But...more widebodies on UA so more upgrades to go around. I fly to SFO about 3 times a year and I have had decent luck as a 2P (soon to be 1P). I'd give the advantage to UA simply because when you get upgrades, you will get better seats. When you don't get upgrades, you'll at least have E+.
D - I'm not sure exactly what types of miles you are looking for besides status and promo miles. I would think that Mileage Running would be easier on UA simply because you have more seats to pick from and therefore a greater chance of finding deep-discount fares on off-peak flights.

Only thing I don't know is if UA customer service at SFO is high-quality, because they feel it is a valuable competitive market, or crappy, because they have a hub mentality. The only thing that has scared me off from UA in the past has been abysmal customer service in certain locations. I'm back with them in '06 because I have little choice, and to be honest I haven't had any recent, major problems with them.

thank you for youe input and what i meant by promo miles was for example american just recently had quadruple miles to las vegas so i was wondering which has more offers similar to this

I'd stick with CO or NW for free upgrades

Both carriers do route-specific promos. I personally have had better luck getting them on UA, but I suspect it's fairly anecdotal. (If I had any need to fly to Dallas in the past year, I'd give the opposite answer: MCI-DAL/DFW has had huge bonuses on AA.) UA had some nice West Coast bonuses about a year ago that I was lucky enough to hit with my regular business travel. ^

One hypothesis: you'll see better route-specific promos long-term on UA since it could feel the need to defend its hub against any number of carriers to any number of destinations. Or...simply the need to promote business on any number of underperforming routes out of SFO. It's unlikely that SFO to another airline hub city will be an "underperforming route", so you'd probably only hit AA route-specific bonuses if they decide they really need to get aggressive against UA in your market.

But this is a guess...I'm sure Bay Area fliers can provide better info on what really goes on as far as those kinds of bonuses on UA and AA.

Pinniped, you make a lot of sense, but I have a questions a couple of these points:

B - Are you sure AA always offers full RDM and EQM? My wife and I recently flew it a couple of times domestically on discounted fares and only received 50% RDM. Or perhaps when you say "leisure fares" you're not counting the deeply discounted ones?
C - The contrary argument I've read elsewhere in FT is that by virtue of having far fewer elites based in the SF area AA actually offers a better chance of upgrading. I just haven't flow it enough domestically to know about this personally, though. Plus AA fans argue that its narrow body planes have more seats in F than most UA ones do. BUT as you say, you're definitely better off in UA's E+ if you can't fly upgraded.

A couple of other points:
1. If I understand AA's system correctly, you have to pay $250 to upgrade using miles on international flights, as opposed to no fee for UA.
2. AA fans correctly argue that if you fly a lot domestically you can still potentially upgrade for free on all AA flights, whereas with UA you're limited to your accumulation of 500-mile coupons.

It might a decision of "WHEN" to switch...
You're already a lifetime Gold w/ AA. If you get 2 million miles, you're a lifetime plat. AND, those miles can come from multiple sources, not just flights--charging your purchases to an AA-miles-earning card, idinining at AA miles-earning eats, transferring hotel points to AA miles, car rentals for AA miles, AAdvantage E-shopping, etc. etc. I don't think UA has a "lifetime" status option, and no one knows for sure how much longer AA is going to allow "non-flight" miles to count towards lifetime status. You may want to consider how close/far you are from reaching that. Let's say you could nail it within a certain amount of time acceptable to you--and then do all the UA flying you want, knowing if you ever had to fly AA again, you'd have your status in hand.

As for the "upgrades on intern'l flights" question, yes, you have to pay to $250 to use that, but some have posted that while UA doesn't charge the $250, it only allows upgrades from fare buckets that are slightly more expensive, sometimes $250 more expensive, making it kind of a wash.

Well, I'm *fairly* certain. I don't fly AA as much anymore because I'm always going to Seattle, which limits me to UA. But, I believe you still earn full EQM's and RDM's, but 50% EQP's. (The P being "Points".)

The whole notion of "EQP's" is unique to AA, I think, and is designed to provide a subtle fast-track for people who fly refundable coach or higher. UA effectively provides the same thing simply by providing 150% EQM's on similar fares.

But...since you can still hit Gold, Plat, and even ExPlat on regular EQM's or Segments, you can pretty much ignore your EQP counter if all you fly is deep-discounted coach.

At least...I think this is how it works. I also have read that there are a couple of oddities within AA's structure - e.g. non-mileage-earning "O" fares. I've never seen these personally so not sure if they'd affect the OP.

Yeah, probably true - especially in the Bay Area where 1K's and UGS members are probably thicker than just about anywhere. Being a 2P out of MCI usually puts me #1 or #2 on the standby list and has even yielded op-UG's three times this year. Being a 1P in SFO probably puts you well down the list, whereas AA Plat might get more notice. Plus, AA does run a few 767's at SFO (e.g., to JFK), so it's not all Mad Dogs.

Still, E+ would probably be the kicker for me, especially if I saw myself doing any kind of long-haul (either transcon or int'l) travel.

A mid-tier on CO shouldn't count on too many upgrades out of SFO..those are tough for top tier to get...maybe sometimes out of OAK they would clear. I actually think that a UA 1P would have more luck on upgrades out of SFO than a mid-tier CO gold

United does have lifetime Premiere Executive status once you hit the million mile mark, but those are strictly BIS miles. Nothing else counts. (Delta does, too, but they weren't part of the question.)

I have been 1P for 3 years now and Plat up until February this year although I get it back this weekend.

Being based in NYC and also totally on my own dime I have moved completely to AA and am giving up 1P

Here is how I see the comparison.

UA Plusses.
Channel 9.
E+
Better options to Pacific.
PS

AA Plusses.
Better flight selection from NYC.
Better able to upgrade.
Better domestic MR options with use of alaska at times.
Better chance to hit lifetime levels because ALL miles count.
Cheaper Awards to South America.

Both airlines give 100% RDM and EQM on all domestic travel. AA give 50% of EQP only on deep discount.

Given the SFO outlook of this question I would still choose AA due to AS possibilites on the west coast.
AA exit row makes up for E+ in most cases. I find you can almost always upgrade on AA when you want.

The comment about AA "O" fares not earning miles does NOT apply to domestic travel. ALL AA domestic travel earns miles.