American or United FF Program?
 

Hi All,

Moving to Chicago in a month from NY and am looking to pursue elite status on one or the other. Was with CO before, and will see a big uptick in my travel, mosty from CHI-NYC 1-2x a month for business and personal reasons. Will also make a number of west coast trips from ORD and some to Europe, maybe one to Asia, plus some vacation. In terms of elite status that will prob make me a mid-tier flyer ~50k. Just looking for thoughts on which program presents the best value in the eyes of the community!

Thanks,
Chris

Both have their strengths and weaknesses. I prefer United due to Economy Plus, but others like American for various reasons. In addition to this post, you might want to browse the two forums that represent the FF programs for these airlines.

As far as the value of miles go, AA's are more valuable. UA has recently increased their award chart so awards are more expensive. In the off-season, I can get to Europe in coach for 40K miles. UA would cost me 55K. AA has nice OW awards where you pay according the miles you fly, and it also has one-way awards, which can be nice, especially if you are into the MR game.

But, to be fair, UA has a better presence in Europe. For many places in Europe, I have to fly AA to London and transfer to BA. AA is pretty bad in Eastern Europe. It's good in South America. UA is better in Asia.

As far as upgrades-and *sniff* I don't have much first-hand knowledge of this, neither will give you complimentary upgrades that aren't op-ups for mid-tier. You have to earn stickers. Since both AA and UA use ORD extensively, I wouldn't expect many op-ups, either. Though I think AA usually has a bigger first class cabin, so your chances of getting into first class-using stickers and otherwise, are greater. But if you don't land in first, then UA at least has E+, which gives you more leg room. (Assuming that you aren't quick enough to grab a bulkhead or exit row).

I think AA just runs smoother. I've had problems with miles crediting to UA, UA seems to cancel more because of weather (probably because their two of their hubs are in DEN and ORD) and AA seems to let people chose their seats more often.

I don't know if you'll join a lounge. I have no idea what those are like where you're going.

I'm sure others can talk more knowledgably than me, but this is what I've gathered.

First thought is that I believe Continental is joining Star Alliance in October.

In terms of mid tier, not much difference in goodies, UA has a few more direct destinations than AA

AA tends to be nicer to Chicago customers than its DFW captive audience

Recently, AA has provided better food in first class than UA on the limited sample I have flown

Economy Plus is probably the biggest benefit on UA for me. If you go to the west coast it may be worth considering that UA has hubs in LAX and SFO. Of course that has nothing to do with NYC.

You didn't say how tall you are - not usually a factor in FT questions, but it is in this case. If you expect to spend most of your time in the back of the plane and you're over medium height, I'd say UA for E+. Other than that, I'd go with AA on balance, though there isn't that much of a difference.

(While it's true that you'll usually have to connect at a European hub to get to most anywhere with AA, you probably will with UA most of the time too. Unless your usual destination happens to be in a UA city that AA doesn't serve, I don't think a wider choice of hubs to fly through is a huge deal. How many does one need?)

Welcome to Chicago nikbruno! I moved here 8 years ago, flew first two flights on UA. Never did it since then. They were aweful! I am all AA now. I see people mentioning E+ on UA, but as an ExP, I get upgrades to F 90%+ of time. I am guessing more UA elites in town make it harder to upgrade on UA. Less AA elites make it easier to upgrade on AA :D

Unfortunately, the OP expects to be Platinum. If the average flight, statistically, has room for 90%+ (not 100%!) of the EXPs, what are the upgrade chances of someone who's behind all of them, and also behind all his fellow PLTs who got their tickets earlier? Not zero, obviously, as there's a good deal of variability around the averages, but not nearly as good as yours. That's why E+ is an important part of the picture.

UA will give you more options out west. I was a longtime AA flier who switched to UA in the past couple of years due to western U.S. travel.

In terms of purely subjective softer touches - the customer service and unpublished courtesies - I felt that AA appreciated its Plats more than UA its 1P's. I was living in Chicago when I was an AA Plat in the 90s and I always liked the fact that United was the slightly bigger dog in town: I felt like it made AA appreciate its frequent customers a bit more. It could have been my imagination, or it could have been the awesome city ticket office near my office building that is no longer there. :(

Bringing CO into the mix is a big plus for UA - from ORD, it'll serve to give you some more options into NYC.

I'm currently a UA 1K and I'm at 100% on domestic upgrades this year. I have to use e-500's for them, but I earn more of those than I can use. I did okay as a mid-tier, but the best flights for upgrades would sometimes leave me back in the exit row in coach. (Still not a bad seat.)

ORD check-in and security always seems like a total zoo in the UA area. AA feels less chaotic to me.

Star Alliance allows stopovers on awards that cross regions. AA's new approach with everything being a one-way sort of kills off that feature. It's a trade off: FT'ers seem split as to which they prefer. I love international stopovers.

Of the global alliances, I personally feel that Star is the strongest and covers my destinations the best with the most options. Look at your desired destinations and see if that's true for you too.

Lots of pros and cons to both...

In my limited experience with AA, I found their customer service is leaps and bounds better than UA. Just calling AA without any status, I was connected to a friendly, American-sounding, very helpful agent, who helped me find some award tickets I wanted. Very quick, <10 seconds hold time... Try doing that as a GM at United.

That being said, if you have status at United, they treat you OK. And with CO coming into the Alliance, you could probably credit much of your flights to CO if you wanted to.

Upgrades on United are OK as a 1K. I have had good success this year, but I assume it is because others are flying less and cheaper buckets now than in previous years.

E+ is really nice I think. I have no experience redeeming awards on other Alliances, but I find it difficult to redeem using UA or AC miles. I did get some good Air New Zealand tickets this year from UA awards, but from the reactions of others on the board, I think I got lucky. Like upgrading, I think it might have something to do with the down economy.

If I had to choose, I would take UA over AA, because of CO coming into the Alliance should hopefully keep me off other airlines/alliances.

I would probably choose AA.

UA's starnet blocking just drives me nuts

Also if you plan on coming back to NYC, AA is a much better option than UA, though if you're going to Jersey it don't matter much as CO is king there

for what its worth there was a thread a few days ago that in bad weather, UA seems to fly out late, while AA just cancels

on AA you can buy stickers if Gold or Platinum. Executive Platinums don't earn stickers but do not need/use them for their own travel

AA sticker upgrades are pretty easy to come by for EXP, often so for PLT. they're really nice for transcons as well as to/fr Hawaii, Alaska, Central America and Caribbean.

AA has good awards for upgrades (including SWU's at EXP) but beware some of the good prices are for fares that are not upgradable (O and Q). irks me to spot a $500 TATL only to find out it's nonupgradable and the upfare costs $300+

not many gripes about aa.com vs ua.com (aka "dot bomb")