pineapplejet

I've been AA Exp for many year but my recent move abroad is really making me think about diversifying some miles to MP.

I do about 150K-180K flying a year (no runs) so def not enough to maintain Exp and 1K at the same time. And since I moved abroad I'll be flying mostly alliance partners (LH, TK, BA, AY, etc) instead of AA or UA.

Question is, should I move 50-80K of flying to MP or would I be better off sticking with AA. (can't do status match b/c i won't be flying with UA, I get 100% rdm bonus so that will be letgo if I make a move to MP)

njcommodore

There will be a flood of people crying about how UA has gone down the toilet and will throw out terms such as COdbaUA, TOD, ConU, etc. If you an ignore most of it, based on your travel pattern 50k (gold) in UA will get you Star Alliance lounge access when flying *A flight. You'll also be able to book exit row and Economy Plus seats at booking. 75k will get you platinum status and 2 regional upgrades, good in CONUS, Caribbean, central america and northern South America (Bogota, Quito and Caracas). IMO, yes, always good to diversify, but buckle up, here come the chicken littles.

andrewwm

In general, it's best to credit your miles to the airline you plan to fly the most (which I guess would now be BA?). If you're doing a lot of European/Asian travel, probably best to switch to BA. Avios points are actually fairly useful if you are LHR based.

If you are still doing a lot of TATL/domestic US travel, then probably best to stay with AA.

In terms of diversifying, you will probably want to credit enough miles to *A FFP that gets you Star Alliance gold status so you can have lounge access on all flights. However, note that with AA you will be getting 100% bonus on all credited miles, while the 50k miles level (Premier Gold) now only earns 50% on UA. So you would be giving up significant amounts of miles dual-crediting.

zabes64

Also if you are flying Partner flights be careful as to whether or not you earn any miles on the fare classes being bought.

If I were flying LH a lot I would get Senator status over UA status, you'll find better service from LH as a Senator vs a UA Gold member, but that would require you to be flying 100K (if you have a non-german address) to attain that status, if you can't do that, then UA may be the way to just get gold, but you'll only earn a 50% bonus and don't count on many domestic upgrades unless you're on a YB fare, as a 1K I routinely find myself number 10-15 on the upgrade list, even on a Q (mid range fare) on routes like ORD-DCA.

So it really depends, if you buy fares that earn miles on UA and are only going to credit 50K a year then look at UA, Thai, hell even Aegean to get that easy Gold status.

hobo13

All true. Stick with BA/AA. No chicken-little required.

Also, consider crediting to A3 and get Gold on the cheap (i.e. low requirement / easy re-qual).

Boghopper

+1

pineapplejet

Thanks guys. I think I'll stick with BA/AA whenever I can and only fly SA when the tickets are significantly cheaper. I'm doing a lot of TATL, Africa, and Asia in that order. I figured the 50K in bonus miles forgone for Gold with SA is too great of a trade off.

I also have Priority Pass Select that would grant me Access to most SA lounges (except UA) And I did slip into the DEN Red Carpet with my Amex Centurion.

Just couple more years until I hit 2MM with AA then the same question all over again...

Time traveller

I would recommend diversification as putting all your eggs in one basket (one alliance) is not always a good idea. You don't know what will happen to AA long term until it emerges from BK. *A is definitely stronger in Europe compared to OW and you never know when flying an *A flight, *A Gold (or even Silver) may help in an IRROP.

MoJ0

All COdbaUA bashing aside (I'm moving FROM UA to AA)... you will find that 1K is the ground level - domestically. With unlimited upgrades -and TOD upgrades- even GS and 1K are seeing their batting averages dip dramatically this year.

From an inernational standpoint, gold gets you *A gold which is reallly all you need. I'm lifetime gold now (1MM) with minimal overseas this year, so I'm moving to AA. I may have to rethink that if/when I do more TATL and TPAC flights ... but the landscape may change by then.

Best of luck to you,
MJ

Jorgen

If I were flying 0.18 megamiles per year and doing *any* of it on Star Alliance I'd want to have star gold status in my back pocket at the very least.

Though I understand that being able to summon a horde of cherubim and seraphim to carry you to your destination in the case of IRROPS is an Amex Centurion benefit anyway.

FWAAA

I would think that TATL from London would mean that AA/BA would have an edge with over 50 daily flights from LHR to USA. Africa? BA is nice, but others may be cheaper. Asia? BA, CX and JAL should have you covered there. The real question for me would be: which airline (AA or BA) do you credit for status? EXP or BA Gold? You probably won't be on AA metal as often - so AA's upgrade scheme may not matter as much.

drsh99

Hey all,
I'm closing in on a million miles on American and usually earn AA platinum status each year (mid-level elite status) from flying 50,000+miles/yr. I'm thinking of switching teams once I hit a million, since United flies nonstop from Chicago to more of the places I'll need to go in the next few years. I'm looking for advice from folks who fly both airlines and who have elite status; what are the pros and cons of United Mileage Plus?

Many thanks,

drsh

UAPremierGuy

There are numerous threads for this already in place. My advice: Don't to it. Yeah, UA may fly nonstop to more places for you out of ORD, but it is likely on a CR2, or maybe if you're lucky a CR7 with no meal service in F, and upgrades sold for $9.99 to a GM. UA won't value you. Just sayin'...

Passmethesickbag

No doubt, you will have a bunch of threads quoted within minutes by people with better memory than mine, and will probably be merged into one of them, but here are my top three:

PROS
1. Award availability. MP miles after the merger are like money in the bank - you can almost always find availability with one parter or the other, and in real-time on their website as well. I really miss that with AA.
2. Economy Plus, for when you don't get upgraded (and often you won't). On its way to AA too, I know.
3. Network - an argument overused by the present management I know, but it's true - this airline can take you from Bangkok in the West to Delhi in the East.

CONS
1. Upgrade availability. Too many Elites, too few premium seats, and no capacity control in terms of stickers - and flying out of ORD you'll be one of many on the wait list. You'd definitely get more upgrades if you stay Platinum on AA than if you would get as Gold on UA.
2. Mileage earning on discount coach fares on most partners is getting worse and worse - much better with OW.
3. Mid-tier mileage bonuses. As AA Plat, you'll earn 100% bonus with essentially all OW partners - as UA Gold, you'll earn 50% with UA and LH (on the fares that still give you any credit at all), nothing with other partners.

So, if you were 2MM I'd say you have nothing to lose. As 1MM, if I were you, I'd stay until you know if post-merger AA gets worse and if post-merger UA gets better.

FriscoHeavy

Earning that many miles per year will allow you to build up a nice little stockpile. If ease of redeeming miles is important, I would switch to United. Otherwise, I'd stay where you are. It's very easy to redeem miles on UA, which is a nice benefit...but AA will be a great airline in the next few years with all their new planes coming.