Which *A program would you prefer?
 

Hi guys,

It's my first time posting here and I hope to be able to answer future questions from others.

Ok, so here's my dilemma. My home airport is CLT (as my name may suggest), making US Airways my main airline option (I know...sucks). But, I highly doubt Dividend Miles is the best option, considering I have 2 other choices for FFP's (UA and Continental). Which would you guys go with, based on award flights, elite statuses, and % chance of getting the award flight I need?

From my own research, I've come up with United. Here's how.

US Air requires 30,000 miles to get a round-trip award flight, while OnePass and UA require 25,000 (That is a lot for my travel volume). (-1 for US Air)

I've also heard (from one stat or another) that people only get their desired US award flight like 10% of the time, while like 70% of the time with OnePass. (-1 US Air, +1 Continental).

With United, though, I like their option for one-way award flights (most of my flights are); that keeps me from wasting the unclaimed 12,500 miles I'd end up wasting. (+1 United)

No matter who I go with, it seems like they stick all of their award flight customers on a US Airways flight (joy...), otherwise the answer would be clear: Continental.

The only reason I won't go with UA indefinitely, is because I hear a lot of negative karma associated with UA (from EVERYONE); how come? Is it just the actual United flights that people are disappointed with? Because if that's the case, it doesn't affect me. I'd mainly be on US Air flights.

Thanks so much for any responses and I'm sorry about the lengthiness.

First, welcome to FT! ^

Second, this might be better answered in the *A forum, as you are looking for input on more then just UA, and there are other options like Air Canada, Lufthansa, ANA, etc.

Finally, just curious... about how many miles do you typically fly in a year?

I like UA. I'm pretty flexible, and can get an award flight
more than half the time I want one.
And remember that Continental and United have merged.

I guess you got that from that survey that was flawed since it only included the website search.

United, Continental, US Airways, Air Canada, etc... all draw from the same inventory, so wherever you bank your miles, you can redeem them for the same flights! (there may be very minor variations or glitches)

For now United is the only ones with limited one-way awards. But US Air you can buy miles with huge bonuses...

You want to use the program that you fly on most. Especially since promotions only apply to flights operated by the airline that's offering them. If you are flying on US exclusively, then you are better off staying with Dividend Miles. You can always redeem your DM miles for any *A flights.

US DM miles are quite good for using on *A award flights. US does not block availability if award seats are available. US own award seat availability sucks, try getting award flights to Hawaii. But, you can use DM miles on other *A flights.

Unles you're looking to actually fly on other airlines, then you should just stay put with USAir.

OK. I definitely won't be buying miles, as it wouldn't be worth it for me, but I might take flights on other *A carriers. I haven't considered Air Canada because I don't see any need to travel to Canada, unless it would just be miles with them and I fly with a different carrier. Btw, I like the idea of US Air DM and going on different flights, but would I be paying US's mileage fee or the chosen carrier?

Thanks for all of the help.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

You pay the fees and follow the rules for the program you redeem your miles in, whether that's United, Continental or US Airways.

You haven't discussed what your travel patterns are. This is rather important to know in order to make recommendations. Do you just casually fly a few times a year for a lark, or are you looking for lots of regular travel for an employer?

Also, since no-one's bothered to correct you on this: you're wrong about redemption levels for lowest-tier domestic coach tickets for US Airways: they are 25,000 just like UA and Continental. (It's also a very poor use of miles compared to premium class redemptions to exotic, far off locales, if that's what you'd like to do with your miles.)

I would not rule buying US miles out of hand. It is possible to buy US Airways miles and get an award ticket in business or first class that would be comparable in cost to coach tickets to locations you would be traveling to (since US Airways is liberal in allowing creative routings). For instance, I laid out perhaps a thousand in cash (after doing various other things to add miles to my US account), and got a first class trip to Hong Kong and Germany out of the deal, going around the world. Other members of FlyerTalk have done similar trips as well. The coach tickets involved in my trip next year would in all likelihood cost something over $1000 by themselves, and would be far less comfortable.

That being said, this all goes back to where you expect to travel and what you'd like to get out of it. If all you want to do is go to Las Vegas, New York or Disney vacation parks for free on a vacation, for instance, you want a different approach than needing to be able to fly to Chicago on a moment's notice for your employer, and wanting to sit in the first class cabin on those last-minute trips without paying for first class tickets, which is different from saving up miles to fly around the world for 3 months.

Welcome to FT, DouglasRocks!

Why do you say that you only have 2 options besides US? There are dozens of other Star Alliance programs out there which you can chose. All with different advantages and disadvantages.

For example A3 has very easy qualification for *G status (20k miles p.a.). And as a non USA based program you also get lounge access when traveling domestic in the US.
Or TK also has easy qualification and lets you even buy status miles.

Usually, it is a good idea to have status with the airline you actually fly. This will greatly help in situations where flights are oversold, canceled etc as airlines will always take care of their own elites first.

I haven't seen a compelling reason to not go with US as a primary program yet. If you're mostly flying on US that's a strong reason to stick with them.

At the same time, it is important to understand what you want to get out of the program to evaluate the choices you have available.

Is your travel mostly domestic or international? Full fare or lowest available? Single carrier or mixed?

What do you want out of your program? Upgrades on paid flights? Local or long-haul rewards? Coach or premium cabin awards? Lounge access?

How do you plan to collect points? Just by flying? CC spend (and how much do you charge monthly/annually)? Other partners?

Answering these questions will certainly help narrow it down.

OK. It seems I need to be more specific.

I would mainly fly domestically (if at all internationally). Like someone above mentioned, most of them would be NY, LAS, or MCO-type flights for family vacations. That being said, my miles would, most definitely, be used for status with *A or US Air. So I guess the question lies between US AIR's treatment of me or easy lounge access with the foreign program referred to above (except having status with them would most likely be useless, as I won't be flying on their planes at all)

I like the idea of obtaining *A gold status with 20k miles and getting access to the lounge, but are you sure that would apply to domestic flights? I called CLT's US Air lounge and the lady said the *G rule only applies on international flights. Unless, of course, all american flights would be considered "international" to the foreign program (that would be a nice loop-hole!); am I correct there?

And from your guys' prior experience, what do you think is more important? Loyalty to prominent carrier or always being able to relax during long layovers?

So I guess the new competitors are DM miles (Loyalty to US AIR) or A3's "Miles&Bonus" program (Easy lounge access).

Yes, you would have access if on any *A flight so long as the *G status comes from a carrier other than UA, US or CO.

This is a very personal question. What works for me might not work for you. If you're flying out of CLT odds of frequent, long layovers seems somewhat lower so I'd probably err on the side of the other benefits but, again, you'd have to decide for yourself.

The other thing to consider is the various other rules that come down from the programs. Flying on L fares (some of the cheapest out there for CO/UA) only earn 50% credit for A3, among other things. You would also need to consider expiry and other award policies in the valuation of the miles.

Generally speaking, IMO, parking the points in another program just to get lounge access is much more expensive than simply paying the $400 annual fee to get said access. Plus the *G lounge access only comes for you plus one guest; paid lounge membership would include the whole family (if that is relevant).

You note that most of your flights will be on US metal. I'd stick with US as a program based on that, partly for the upgrades and partly because their program actually doesn't suck too badly for the most part.

To be honest, if you were flying from an airport with Southwest (WN) service... I'd be recommending you fly and accumulate on WN. Seriously. They arguably have the best ability for you to do what you seem to want to do (travel domestically, occasionally get an free flight somewhere). Is flying Airtran a possiblity until Southwest takes them over?

You need to fly 25,000 miles a year to maintain base-level status in most programs. That can be done on leisure travel... but it's a lot of leisure travel (5 round-trip transcons in a year or so, 10 round-trips of 1250 miles to and from a destination).

Your chances of upgrades from US coming out of CLT are probably not great at a base elite level. The main benefits are going to be things like early boarding, free checked luggage, and bonuses on flown miles- many of which would also apply if you were *A Silver/Gold in some other program, but I think sbm12's advice (mostly) holds true. I think the biggest problem for you is that US at this point doesn't allow partner redemptions online, and those are the main way you're going to have to redeem for domestic trips (US's availability is really terrible). That means dealing with US customer service over the phone... really suboptimal in my experience, plus their fees on award tickets are really horrible (which is one of the reasons why if someone wants to use their awards domestically, I recommend WN: NONE of those fees applies to redeem a Rapid Reward).