profintraining

Thanks! I've had some bad experience with AA canceling flights/not notifying me promptly/ booking me on a (+9 hour) later flight rather than the next available, so it's good to hear that they handle elites better. Do you have any experience w. availability of TATL award flights on AA? I was under the impression their miles weren't worth very much.

UA-NYC

Not sure how much better UA will be for IRROPS...great if you're GS, otherwise, hit or miss.

AA has tightened up award availability and has fewer Euro partners than UA. BA C/F is pretty much always available IME but you have the big surcharges. Otherwise there's IB/AB/Finnair.

Kurt

I just checked out B6's Mint - it looks like a great product, especially for the price.

anc-ord772

Can't wait to try it!

hockey7711

When you consider the upcoming PS upgrade fees, the Mint product is a real alternative.

(And you don't need to spend 20K miles too- since you won't earn them as easily after March 2015)

ATXflyer

Just finished my last flight of the year. 136 segments, 176k points, 173K bis miles on AA and 4 segments on UA.

Next year, ZERO for UA. I'll fly AA, Jet Blue, Alaska, SW, even Delta before UAX again.

jpsj

Tomorrow is my last UA flight--heading to AA for 2015---1.1 million miles and making the change. I figure that if AA becomes like UA then I haven't lost much and certainly with where UA is heading in 2015, might as well get a little bit more with AA!

But it is bittersweet---I enjoy the UC folks in PHL--they are a good lot and I certainly have my favorite places to pass a layover in ORD, DEN, SFO and IAH.

I really want the upgrades and UA just isn't cutting it for me--later 2014 was poor and then the whole wifi situation is a disaster. I had 4 cross country planes with either no wifi or inop wifi. That is a lot of time and that is something that I value!

Anyhow, you all have heard it before, I am just a bit sentimental as UA is alike an old shoe. I guess I need to break in a new pair now with AA!

milepig

Don't tell us, write smi/j. Only *alliance keeps me hanging around, UA itself is a train wreck.

GAMRican

I'm a 1K, and have requalified for 2015-2016. But I think 2015 will be my last year with UA. I'm betting that the AA/US FF program will be easier and less expensive for me to obtain, while at the same time giving me pretty much the global coverage that I need. Granted, OW is not as expansive as SA, but I'm doing more travel to Latin America and Europe. The OW partners are sufficient for now.

I put the stake in the ground last night be taking advantage of the US "Trial Preferred" program at the Platinum level, and booking a relatively inexpensive SFO-DFW-ICN-DFW-SFO trip for January. That will get me 16,540 out of 30k for USDM CP status. I'll do that a second time to nail it. Any other travel which comes along before then may get me over 30k before the return leg from ICN, but I doubt that would post quick enough to enjoy CP benefits.

In any case, my departure from UA 1k should not be too much torture (aside from two 14.5 hour flights).

jpsj

Seriously, write him? Been there, done that. The response is pretty clear in what we are seeing. It just took me this long to accept it!

LaserSailor

I think this is missed by a lot of people here. There are a lot more HVF who never frequent these pages, for whom this is the whole thing.

UA (and the others) are being run for these flyers, not for FT.

Im not going to lose a half business day connecting through some city for a better glass of champagne or even a better price, for that matter.

StingWest

Yes, good point about the Star Alliance.

For me, traveling mostly internationally TATL, UA is the best alternative if I ever want to upgrade to business class. I'm 18/20 over the past year on UA, but upgrades are particularly hard to find on VS and BA (both used infrequently), and free tickets are not "free" on either if I want to burn miles on those two either. (AA/DL are poor choices out of SFO for me)

But if I had to sit on many flights with the new "slim-line" UA seats as I did over Thanksgiving, I'd be gone in a second.

manstein58

You are right about the PHL UC Team. Nice, welcoming and lots of moxie!

gengar

As evidenced on FT, there are a quite a few HVFs that UA didn't do much good for either. That was my experience as well.

And even out of the FT GS population, quite a few have admitted very specific and limited personal circumstances that led them to choose UA over OALs (think: hub captive, etc.).

*shrug* Most of the time I avoid UA, I am spending more time AND more money. Everyone's different and has different priorities and breaking points.

luckypierre

Is there hidden meaning in this suggestion? One of the hallmarks of the current United management is NOT listening to their customers (and aggravating it with all sorts of management campaigns around pro-consumer agendas-"Changes you will LIKE!" "We got your BACK!"