kevincrumbs

1) *A. Still the best alliance out there, especially for my travel patterns (East Asia & Europe)
2) Route network.
3) MP miles actually have value and are pretty easy to redeem

That being said, I always do my best to avoid UA when doing intercontinental trips and never recommend that my friends fly them.

travelinmanS

I quit UA 2 years ago (I was an 8 year 1K) when the merger went down and moved all my travel to AA. My lady still stuck with UA as a 1K. We've recently been looking for award travel to the US and Europe from Asia and I have to say that UA in this regard is miles better than AA. I'm actually thinking of switching back once I hit 1M miles on AA just because of the award functionality.

5khours

I have updated the OP with the compiled results up to this point.

I don't know. Maybe the 99.9999% of the flying public who don't fly the LAX to SYD route?

LordTentacle

Flying LAX to syd more then 12 times a year
Use UA because
1. Only airline to offer elite members in Y 3 bags at 70lb each fo free
2. Award redmeption, Sky Peso, Pay YQ with QF, VA does not fly where I go
3. DL and UA are only airlines still giving full credit for cheap fares
4. The food on UA in Y is better then the others IMHO
5. I have an Ipad and a Nexus 10... I could give a FARK about IFE
6. UA is always the cheapest in any class of service
7. When delays happen UA puts me on NZ ^^^^^ every time

halls120

I like #97 best.

grizzly

Putting a few numbers to this... I've flown in/out of 95 airports in my life (50 in the US, 45 outside).

United flies to 81 of the 95. And non-stop from EWR to 64 of them.

787fan

How many of the 95 does DL / AA fly to ?

grizzly

UA: Flies to 81. Non-stop from EWR to 64.
DL: Flies to 72. Non-stop from NYC to 49.
AA: Flies to 58. Non-stop from NYC to 32.

These DL / AA numbers include quite a few destinations where the frequency is far inferior to UA from EWR... including a lot of once a day destinations timed for the JFK international banks, making them basically useless for a NYC-based business traveler.

Of course these are only my destinations, so YMMV.

golfingboy

I want to point out, while the below are the reasons I picked UA as my primary carrier... HOWEVER, all of the below is crap if UA cannot run a reliable on-time operation.

I sure hope they swap the aircraft for my PIT-IAD flight tonight [check UA.com flight status page and keep clicking "where is this aircraft coming from" and you will see why] and the cause is "delayed due to crew"

mgcsinc

Someone more knowledgeable than myself should go through and determine which things come from pmCO, which come from pmUA, and which are a hybrid or new.

golfingboy

Some are highly subjective, but I'll give it a rip... sCO will be in Blue and sUA will be in Red. Some can't be attributed to one pre-merger airline, so those will be left in black.

Keep in mind, while merger talks were starting to heat up sCO moved to *A and added in SWUs, and sUA began UDU and stopped *Net Blocking. Technically, both had those benefits before the merger, but those changes were strongly influenced by one other.

218 points for sUA and 189 for sCO based on this very tiny sample size and specific measuring metric.

Indelaware

My top reasons to fly UA: (I'm Platinum).

1. Price (which IMO should be everyone's #1. FF plans ought make the difference between airlines when price is the same.)
2. Bonus miles as an elite member
3. WN & DL FF programs suck (WN is $$ based and DL has high award levels). BTW, I used to include UA's FF program in the "suck" category owing to *blocking.
4. Fee waivers (SDC, award change/redeposit, baggage)
5. Network allows multiple connections to maximize flying experience and earnings
6. Front-end (and back office) staff
7. Great hubs (esp. EWR, CLE, ORD)
8. Loyalty to the memory of CO and remaining staff from the good-old-days
9. Good intra-Europe earning opportunities; don't have to fly AF
10. Partnership (for the moment) with US
11. Ch 9.
12. Friendly web interface
13. Can generally avoid JFK, DFW & ATL
14. Good VDB history

Things which have absolutely ZERO impact in airline selection:

1. Lounges
2. E+
3. Upgrades
4. Global entry
5. F/C product
6. Frequency
7. New fleet
8. Payoffs for IRROPS
9. Jeff

halls120

Pretty accurate, IMHO.

chicaloca453

Well I came back for a few reasons:

Mileage Program - Their miles are easier to use than anyone else's IME
Liberal Same Day Change - Nobody else is going to give me 24 hours in either direction as long as the bucket is there.
E+ - With upgrades getting harder, a comfortable coach product is crucial.
No inflated YQ on international awards.

I've tried them all. I think AA was once good and in some ways it's far superior to UA. However, the things above I value more from UA than the things AA is superior in. I could also add that PMUA terminals are brighter and have better signage. Just compare the AA and UA sides of ORD to see what I mean. I do not like IAH because it's dark and the signage is not in a good place. This is not a key reason for flying UA it is a bonus. It is cancelled out though a bit because the cheaper fares into LAX tend to route through grrrr IAH. It may seem minuscule to some, but to me it really matters.

mickeydfly13

United Center houses the Blackhawks/Bulls. American Airlines is Miami or Dallas. Home town Chicago guy here! And channel 9. That's why I started with UA over American.