UA > US (FF Programs)

I wasn't sure if this is a UA or US question so I dropped it here.

My question is simple. Since one can book a *A, and earns dbl miles when flying US as a M+ member, why on earth does US have any frequent flyers. I would think E+ and the fact UA only partially sucks vs totally sucking would leave US's program empty.

Just trying to figure out why one would stay with US Air.

I can't figure out why anyone would even fly US.

1) Company travel contract requires it
2) located in a US hub
3) located on a spoke only served by US
4) Customer travel contract requires it
5) topping off frequent flyer miles to some specific reward level
6) burning off frequent flyer imles

But why not credit to UA M+?

Upgrades. If most your travel is on flights of <500 miles, your miles don't add up very quickly anyway.

First off, I doubt #3 or #4 are actual situations (and #1 only if it's a "cheapest fare" requirement). But assuming they are...

• Get a better contract, don't take the trip, or change jobs.
• I'm pretty sure other airlines exist at all (both) US hubs...
• Take the bus - it'll be nicer.
• Get a better contract.
• Fly some other *A airline - you can credit it wherever you want, even to DM.
• Fly some other *A airline - you can redeem on any one.

I'm not a defender of US, and the bus is better, but...

#4 is plausible, and many travel contracts with individual companies have "preferred carrier" arrangements.

And I can't imagine anyone changing jobs because their employer made them fly US (what would you say when you resigned, "I love working here, but I hate paying $2 for drinks twice a week and that's why I'm quitting"), and employees at large companies don't generally have that much control over corporate contracts (though there may be a lot of leeway in terms of whether to follow them or not).

For people who live in PHX, PHL, or near DCA, the advantage of taking a US nonstop (vs. a connection on another carrier or a nonstop from a different airport) usually far outweighs the inconvenience of US itself. The airline doesn't have a lot of fans, but people regularly choose to fly them for a reason.

and why not put your miles into UA over US, which has no perks like E+. Only thing you may not get is upgrades?

Pretty much. Dividend Miles is not a generous program at all compared to M+, either on the earning side or the redemption side. For the time being, if you don't count upgrades, M+ elite members are rewarded better for flying US than are US' elite.

And as US decreases seat pitch in F and removes seats from the F cabins, that's not much of a reason. I guess the flip side is that as they reduce the quality of their program, there are fewer elites to upgrade.

My main reason is Starnet. What is the point of all those miles if ya can't use 'em??

Bingo US does very little if any filtering. UA on the other hand is very heavy handed.

Also, it can be easy to get upgrades even at the lower levels because no one in their right mind would pay to sit in F on US.

That's a point, but it depends on your habits. Starnet filtering has only really seemed to be an issue to me on SFO-FRA on LH, and even then in C. I've come to live with the idea that I'll never get a ticket in F on SQ with my UA miles, and though the concept is irritating, there are only a few routes where I personally could rationalize F instead of C.

And Starnet doesn't seem to hit award Y tickets... At the 1K level, redemption in Y is overall very easy thanks to the extra bucket...US has no such benny.

As you said, it depends on your route. I like to fly around christmas and when US said that LH had four seats on FRA-BLR, UA had squat. It used to be that the filtering was on routes UA had service, but the disease has spread.

Yuck, that does stink--I do have to admit that I don't think I've run into that. Was that in C or in Y? Is it not a valid routing to go through SIN or BKK from the US to India?