UA-NYC

After 2/1, I can get oneworld F seats to S. Asia for 135K miles, where with UA on any partners it will be 260K.

If you read up on DL mileage burning, the great gap on rates/redemption ability will have narrowed to nil after 2/1.

The days of MP as an industry leading program are over come 2/1.

sbm12

Really? You can now redeem DL miles for F tickets?? Or search most partners online? Or have both a stopover and open jaws on a single award? Or a one-way award?

The field may be a bit more level, but to say that the two are on par remains quite a stretch IMO.

UA-NYC

Really. Everyone has made fun of "SkyPesos" for a long time. The joke is now on UA flyers - as of 2/1 the miles will be worth the least of the 3 majors. And the mileage program is no longer the clear differentiator it was.

I'd say they're on par now. DL miles are easier to earn, and will cost you less on the redemption side.

3Cforme

A stopover and an open jaw on an international award, yes. The rules say stopover or open jaw but agents and online search have long priced this to permit both.

One-way pricing at 1/2 of r/t on Delta? No.

Double open jaw at r/t pricing? No.

Delta's award calendar search is utterly insufferable, even for simple DL-only itineraries, but poor search is only one element of the total airline experience.

UA-NYC

If you want to get technical - the UAL web site lists both 2 OJs and a stopover, but on different lines in the award T&Cs. It's a bit of a gray area on whether they can be used in the same itin...agent YMMV.

cblaisd

Indeed.

The routes I fly aren't changing at all.

LaserSailor

MP is devalued only for those who seek F on a *A partner as some sort of " life experience"

For the sane world who seek to go to cool places the MP program is still far ahead getting us to the destination.

fly747first

That's highly subjective because as another member posted, Star Alliance can't take you to exotic places like Bora Bora and technically neither can Oneworld, but at least AA has partnered with Air Tahiti Nui to get you there.

gtslow

Thank you. I use miles for family vacations. We don't plan to sit in 1st and doubt we ever will. Last vacation we all got bumped to business class off award tickets on both legs and my wife and I were both happy and excited. I'm happy with Mileageplus but less so with United as I seem to be flying on less mainline aircraft. Flying from SEA to SFO on an ERJ is just ludicrous. That and the exit of USAir from *A hurts United's offerings from SEA for me. I'm looking at Delta or AA for next year.

UA-NYC

MP has also been devalued for those who seek C on a *A partner for even just a slightly nicer experience

fly18725

How does this impact the likelihood of a Chapter 11 filing in the coming year?

UA-NYC

The conversation evolved into a broader discussion of the MP program vis-a-vis competitors, as it often does in these threads.

You're free to ignore. Or to defend UA. Your call.

spin88

This entirely ignores the reality of redemptions. Now if you want to fly IAH to El Paso, you are correct, you are not impacted. But if I want to fly to anyplace I would typically go (YVR, NRT, PEK, HKG, LHR, spain, Italy) this often does impact me. Why? Because on any given day, probably more than half of the redemption options are on *A, often far more. So its not really a question of "do I fly UAL in C, or pay 2x that to fly *A" its a question of do have a shot at C seats.

At this point, and having recently looked at redemption on each, my miles on AS are far, far more usable and valuable than those on UA. And I might add that I am seeing about as many redemptions on DAL as I am seeing on UAL metal. And keep in mind, this is only part of the "package" - DAL gives more usable SWUs going forward and does not massively sell TODs like UAL does domestically, and has much better quality of service.

For me, this was sort of the final straw. I'll still book *A carriers (where the service is good, just booked ANA to NRT) and credit to my UAL account, but I am only flying UAL when its the only option OR is a lot cheaper, and given that AS is now crediting all partners, I will be willing to fly AS partners which I would not have looked at before rather than *A carriers.

fly18725

It is an honest question and I think understanding how the increase in partner redemption rates impacts insolvency is relevant.

I'm not sure why you suggest my only two options are to ignore you or defend UAL.

fahrradman

You realize UA is profitable, right? Profitable companies don't enter Chapter 11.

My observations are purely anecdotal, but on my ORD-LGA weekly commute, UA planes were routinely full. AA planes seem to have a lot more free seats. It also seemed like there were a lot more 1Ks on UA than EXPs on AA.

For all the bellyaching on this forum, I'd yet to see evidence that there were was a mass exodus of high value flyers from UA. Yeah, I jumped ship because of the M+ devaluation. But it doesn't mean your average business traveler cares enough to jump ship over issues we rant about on FT.