Aren't US miles still just as easy to get, meaning churning is allowed, they are just a little more expensive?

$79 for 25k miles comes out to ~$400 for 125k miles, enough to get to much of the world first class.

Whoa. Talk about a rock and a hard place. What a horrible choice. I guess I'd probably pick UA. Maybe I'd rather walk, though.

Even Chairman's Preferred members pay the change fees. I have been granted several "one-time" courtesy exemptions, but that is out of the norm.

Something's not correct. The redeposit fee (same fee as award change fee) is waived for CP. Cancel and redeposit the miles, get the refund for taxes, and book a new award. It's what you have to do anyway since US is unable to change a *A award without canceling the ticket and starting over. Well, they can if it's all US metal, but who does that willingly?

http://www.usairways.com/awa/content...chairmans.aspx

Wow tough call - so many mediocre choices

I think the key questions for you are how you plan to accumulate miles and how you plan to spend them.

If you will accumulate by flying domestic economy class on UA then you might prefer UA as your status will get you E+ seating and some other benefits at the airport.

If you will accumulate by flying international (any class) you might be best off crediting to BMI as you will get some nice bonuses. However if you are flying UA and will hit 100k then you might appreciate the SWUs.

If you will be redeeming for domestic flights within USA then UA is the best choice as redemption is usally pretty easy and much better than US.

However if you will be redeeming for international business class travel then your best choice would be BMI, and to a lesser extend US. BMI (and US?) require fewer miles, but more importantly, neither appears to engage in the horrific *net blocking.

I see no reason to credit miles to UA anymore until UA decides to honor its obligations to provide saver international business class awards on both UA and *A partners.

That's not necessarily true. Just yesterday I changed the first two legs of a three-airline Star Alliance international F ticket with no impact to the rest of the itinerary. (I also did a more complicated change last year, involving a change in airlines, and did not lose the remainder of the itinerary.)

It was an issue to me in yesterday's case because all the remaining flights were no longer available in F and I didn't want to lose them. The agent said there was no need to impact them and proceeded to change the two flights I wanted changed. As with too many things on US, it's all about the agent you get.

On the broader subject of US vs. UA, at the top tier, UA 1Ks have a significant advantage over US CPs in the ability to change award tickets without penalty. They're costly on US. As has been mentioned, redeposits are free, but with complicated itineraries, you're often waiting for one or two flights to become available and don't have the luxury of scrapping the entire trip and re-booking.

On the other hand, the lack of restrictions on Star Alliance award tickets (specifically UA's StarNet filtering) and more flexible routings, without the mileage maximums, make it much easier to book those award tickets as a US elite.

I really think this is a worthy discussion in light of the upcoming Continental/UA merger since after Sept 2011, UA vs US Air will be the only two choices for U.S.-based *A FFP's. Let's compare/contrast in terms of:

1) Earning potential via flights on original carrier
2) Earning potential via flights on alliance partners
3) Earning potential via non-flights (Shopping Portal, partners, etc.)
4) Award redemption on original carrier
5) Award redemption on *A partners
6) Low/Mid/High tier status benefits

Are there a lot of mile-earning opportunities for United? I'm targeted for CO card (50k) til the end of the month, but I've been wondering if it's worth the pull. I have a few (~18k) CO miles left over from when I was in grad school in Cleveland, but primarily fly US now since I live in Philly.

If I get the CO card, I'll have ~68k miles that will go over to UA, but not sure I'll be able to earn many more on UA.

I've had the UA for several years now, earning miles on the UMP Visa, flights (obv), hotels, occasional car rentals, and MP dining. And in the time I've had the card, I don't think I've ever redeemed on a UA flight. I've flown US a couple of times, and LH several times internationally. I went with UA primarily because of *A and I've been pretty satisfied with my redemption options.

All things equal, UA is superior.

But, as always, this depends on which airport you're out of, route equipment, etc.

Lastly, keep a close ear to the upcoming UA changes.

I tried booking a flight to India and needed to get back from East Asia (China, Japan, HK) as the lsat leg and Co.com showed tons of availability on UA/CO, but multiple US agents said they could not see it. We're talking about 2-3 flights a day over a 30 day period. I finally found something on singapore, but it was pretty darn hard. Has anyone else had this problem?

Was this last leg on flights operated by Continental Express? I have always had issues with those - they are easy to redeem with Continental OnePass miles but US Air (and UA at least until recently) don't see them available because they are well not on Continental but on its affiliate. I knew this was the problem because on the route I was interested in (IAH - SHV) there are about 9 daily flights of which 2 are operated by CO itself and they were readily available for US/UA redemption while the rest were CO Express operated and (again at least until recently) you could easily book these with OnePass miles but not US Dividend Miles

Equipment aside, how is UA's FF program better than US Air's FF program?

Slight advantage to UA due to strategically positioned coastal hubs that allow for longer routings. 1P's 100% bonus (which seems to be going away soon) is also good, but like I said is destined to disappear.

More or less equal

Essentially negligible but IME slight advantage to US

Advantage to UA, US envoy awards are pretty hard to get

Advantage to US, no Starnet blocking, looser routing rules and more generous award chart.

As US silvers definitely have the edge over UA 2P in terms of UDU and everything- because US' elite pool is not as bloated as UA's

One not so widely known benefit with US is that you can earn status miles on non-Star partners. I was pleasantly surprised to find I hit silver after a few QR flights.