New base program for 2010 (AC or UA)
 

First off wanted to say this is a great site. I've learned a great deal reading the FAQs and other threads on the boards here. However, I wanted to get some input from some of the experts on my personal situation. Mileage collection and redemption are first priority for me. It would be cool to get an upgrade at some point, I've never actually flown in F or C/J before.

I started at a new job this year that has me travelling. I'm based out of AUS and fly for work primarily to ALB, usually 1 or 2x a month. Work policy is I have to fly cheapest rate but I can game it a little by telling agent times I need to leave/arrive at customer site. Usually end up flying either Southwest or Star Alliance (US/UA). I flew primarily US since July and I'm going to hit Silver thanks to their Q4 promotion. I'll probably end up flying 30-35k miles next year for biz. Only personal trip planned in 2010 is to Australia in the fall.

Two programs that seem best from what I've read are AC and UA, wanted to get your opinions. Here's my reasoning for each:

Aeroplan (assuming I can fly 35K for Elite)
+ 50% Elite bonus (CO and UA)
+ *G would mean I could use Lounges for free
+ Mileage redemption rates seems better?
+ 500 mile minimum
- No bonus for flying US metal which I regularly do
- AC no longer flies to AUS

UA (assuming I fly 35K)
+ Economy Plus seating
+ Upgrades I may be able to use
+ 25% Elite bonus for *S including when I fly on US
+ UA has flights to AUS

Anything I'm missing? Is CO worth considering?

For credit cards I've mostly been using Hilton Honors AMEX and Citi PremierPass Elite. There are no Starwood hotels in Albany area so i'm wary about getting a SPG card. I'm Hilton & Marriott Gold.

Unless you can get a mileage earning credit card for Aeroplan in USA, I would stick to UA if earning points is your priority!

Probably a very personal decision. I switched last year from UA to AC. I liked AC's lower mileage requirements for awards. I never did the whole upgrades thing but have always just booked a full award instead. If you plan on doing upgrades I think UA is a better choice.

Another reason for my switch was that I had an Amex Gold membership rewards card that came with a whopping 50K points sign up bonus. Those points were 1:1 convertible to AC but only 1:2 convertible to UA. Then I dumped that card after moving all the points to AC and got an SPG Amex card with a 10K mile signup bonus and a further 15K bonus for spending $15K on the card in the first 6 months. And I got the BoA Aeroplan MC which had a 15K signup bonus I think. I ended up with 120K miles in no time due to all of those bonuses which was enough for a F/C *A award on LH/TG/NH to SE Asia via Aeroplan. I believe the same award would have cost me at least 145K with the UA program.

Thanks to both for the inputs.

The co-branded credit card makes me think less about using someone like AC for primary plan.

The more I've been looking into it the more that CO seems to make sense for me. All things pretty much being equal between the two I can earn bonus miles at my local supermarket and utility company here in TX and flying to IAH is a heck of a lot more convenient for me than ORD or DEN as a hub. And now with the reciprocity agreement with UA I'd be able to get seats in E+ when I fly on UA flights.

The AC plan has nice redemption rates for flights, but I have quite a few miles on US I can use for *A award travel in the meantime.

1P on UA gives 100% RDM bonus for UA/US/CO flights which would definitely help get you more miles. You would need to be super elite on AC for the same benefit.

If you are traveling 30-35K miles of travel and also have a trip to Australia, you might be pretty close to 1P on UA and if there is another DEQM, you could probably make it.

I totally missed that in the comparison chart. I saw the comments about only UA metal applying to MM status and I wrongly assumed that applied for bonuses as well.

My trip to Australia may be using award miles from US. The flight would likely be on UA metal, that would earn me no EQMs though since it's award travel, correct?

Correct.

Don't Starwood AMEX points transfer 1-1 to Aeroplan?

Award travel won't get you RDM/EQM miles, so I don't usually use award tickets for myself and just use them for family traveling with me. If you think about it, if you pay for the Australia ticket, you will be getting 17K miles + 100% bonus which is 34,000 RDM miles. That's close to halfway to another saver award ticket to Australia and since you travel for business frequently, you won't have to worry about expiring miles and can use those miles for the next family trip.

But then, you would have to reach 1P before your trip to get the 100% bonus. You can also hope for another DEQM, do a cheap MR, and may not need the Australia trip to make 1P.

*G is nice, but in my opinion, by far the best benefit of 1P>2P is the 100% RDM bonus, so I take advantage of it as much as possible.

I'm single, not sure if the GF has earned that many miles, we'll see how she's doing in a couple months ;)

How about this for another option. I read in the status match thread that UA doesn't match but instead does challenges. From what i've read on FT about UA's challenge they give you immediate status for the flight that qualifies. If I buy a RT business class ticket (C) to Australia that should be enough to push me over the limit for a challenge and they'd give me the 1P 100% bonus?

Then the only question is if I would want to buy C ticket on UA to SYD when I could pay same money and fly biz on QF A380. :eek:

I've never done a status match, so I can't speak from first hand experience. But from what I understand, a status match occurs immediately and then you have the fly those "challenge" miles within 90 days of the status match, so the "challenge" miles on a 1P status match will receive the benefit of the 100% RDM bonus.