BearX220

That is only for the duration of a four-way dogfight on SEA-SFO between UA, AS, DL, and VX. And UA is likely to blink first and drop back. As someone else mentioned they are drawing down PDX pretty harshly as well.

As a SEA person who has mostly migrated from UA to AS/AA/DL without regret I cannot imagine a scenario in which the reverse course would look good.

austin_res

Where do you usually fly to? If you plan to travel to Asia or Europe, UA wins hands down, especially to Asia. AA is the better option to Latin America. For domestic travel, UA is stronger along the west coast, Rocky mountain region, and midwest. AA is stronger in the southeast and Florida. It's a tossup in south-central and northeast.

I have flown UA several times the past year, and they are fine. Definitely no worse than AA. Keep in mind AA is integrating with US, and will likely experience many bumps in the next few years. Many expect AA to become USdbaAA, so you should definitely check out US to get an idea on the future of AA.

seacarl

AA is extremely weak on the west coast. And essentially useless to Asia if you travel there. It's not really sensible to backtrack to DFW or ORD if you are going from PDX or SEA to Asia, unless you are trying to do mileage-running. Also the problem of using partners is that you lose out on upgrades and many elite benefits when flying the partner.

I split my flying between AS and UA. I find that MVP Gold is enough status on AS. Really like no change fees. AS is my primary airline for West Coast and Hawaii flying, with possible exception of SFO, since on these trips its often not worth connecting and AS has good frequency. I'm not much of a fan of AS transcon because they have low frequency, so no flexibility and IRROPs headaches, their first class is bad and hard to get.

UA has pulled frequencies out of SEA so they are harder to use. However, because of the plethora of hubs, there are usually options to most destinations. They have increased SFO frequency and capacity, and somehow UA seems to perform better into SFO when there are ATC delays as compared to AS. Out of SFO you have UA nonstop to most of Asia and to FRA, LHR and CDG in Europe, or you can fly via ORD or IAD to Europe. If you are a 1K with UA, they will give instant upgrades on M fares with good availability. That's usually cheaper than AS first fare on the same route, and on most transcons AS has no upgrade space.

For a high volume traveler from SEA or PDX, I think AS has to be part of the mix, and needs to be complemented by either DL or UA for destinations AS doesn't reach, international, and transcon. And I like "native" elite status on an airline I fly a lot. I prefer Star Alliance over Skyteam.

My 2 cents

ETA: PS: DL is starting to add enough routes and frequencies at SEA to be a primary airline for SEA-based travelers, if they don't pull back, especially if international and NYC are part of your mix. However, then you are stuck with the stingiest FF program in the world.

edgewood49

I agree with you regarding the Gold status on AS the extra bonus miles nice but if one can end the year with two airline status AS/UA might just be the way to go. Actually we have retracted from Asia so my international flying will be pleasure to Europe and Africa.

Thanks for the response

spin88

A few thoughts (as someone who was GS on UAL, now had dropped my flying mostly from UAL, and uses AS to bank miles):

(1) do you fly internationally in Coach (i.e. does your company not pay for business class?). If so, with AA or UAL status you get international lounge access, AAs is better as you can use the First Class Lounges. Both AA and UAL give international upgrades for own metal. AAs are real (available good on any fare) UALs are now very hard to use (require higher fares they don't open up R space, try to sell it with TODs). This is the weak point of the Alaska program.

(2) if you are not flying much internationally, or can just book business class, then AS's program is very good. You can bank miles and get the basic benefits on DL and AA. And as you know you will get lots of upgrades.

(3) if you switch to UAL (with service cut backs ex-PDX/SEA) you will be mostly changing planes at SFO. Expect lots of weather delays/misconnects (which UAL does not handel well) and expect a poor upgrade rate. Also expect small RJs for some of the flights. Flying into/out of SFO, a PLT (75K miles) on UAL would be lucky to get 10% upgrades, and you will NEVER get one trans-con. The UAL upgrade system gives upgrades to (a) corporate accounts (who buy discounted Y/B fares), (b) those willing to buy a discounted -up fare or pay for a TOD upgrade, and (c) GS fliers. United would rather make another $50 bucks in extra income by selling a cheap upgrade that give an upgrade away to an elite - even one who paid a lot for their ticket.

(4) if you can make the DM level on Delta (125K miles) or the EXP level on AA (100K miles) you will get a much better upgrade rate than anything on UAL, and better service. Unless you make one of these levels and need the fuller nationwide network, you are probably better sticking with AS.

edgewood49

Thanks for taking the time to write a detailed response. I have determined that I will wait until late summer or early fall to make a final decision. AA Air Pass is tweaking and I want to see how the "food fight" between AS and DL turns and we should know more by late summer which that is going. My international is mostly for pleasure at this point and AS has provided me with great seats but if the DL drys up I want to hedge my bet.

Actually the little I have flown this year on UA has been fairly pleasant but thats only been a couple! Yes I know SFO having lived in the Bay Area.

PVDProf

I status matched to AA two years ago when I moved to SEA, and am still with UA. The reason is that AA has very little capacity to/from SEA on their own metal, and they were pricing it much higher than UA for similar trips (pricing seems more competitive this year, but it's still not many planes). AS trips, creditable to AA, were not as much more expensive, but were infrequent to the east coast and did not have the possibility of upgrade.

I am keeping an eye on how the US/AA merger goes, because US seems to have more lift to SEA than AA does, and between the two of them they almost constitute a usable airline for a SEA-based flyer.

DL is making a big push, and they have a nice onboard product the couple times I've tried it. There is a lot of widebody and flat bed service into SEA, even on domestic routes. If my choice were only about flying experience, I'd go DL in a heartbeat. But it's also about SkyPesos; I determined my earning patterns would get me half the award tickets in which I am most interested on DL than UA.

You said above you buy Y/B/M fares. I expect this strategy would have you in F most of the time on UA out of SEA. Unfortunately, UA doesn't do "consolation" benefits for elites in coach, like AA, DL and AS do.

seacarl

AA pretty much only flies to DFW, ORD and 1/day to JFK. And they still operate some horrid MD-80's, although they have been shifting toward 738's

US operates only to PHL, CLT & PHX, I believe. Probably no more flights than AA, and I wonder how long PHX will last. It will add some flight options.
If I were starting out today, I'd be pretty tempted to make DL my primary, unless I did no international flying and AS covered all my frequent destinations.
Before yesterday's announcement I would have said the one big benefit of UA over DL is the superior mileage program, as well as access to better premium carrier partners. But the Smisek UA management seems determined to eviscerate the value of the mileage program. Yesterday's change is that mileage earning will be identical to DL's new revenue program. The previous change was dramatically increase the cost of partner premium travel awards. So I think the advantage of Mileage Plus vs. Skypesos is greatly diminished. In fact AS may have a slight advantage, although I haven't had great luck in finding the availability that I needed when trying to use AS miles on CX or EK.
If you buy Y/B/M fares and you can make 1K on UA, then you will be riding in F on your domestic flights. UA offers instant upgrades to 1K's on YBM, and I think to Plats on YB and to everyone on Y fares, and they pretty much open the whole F cabin inventory for these upgrades, so you'd be in F a lot.

timfountain

Doesn't really matter, most of the flights I look at on Concur I can see either an AA codeshared AS flight or a direct AS flight. At this point it seems the frequent flier era is coming to an end, as inevitable result of race to the bottom. I will start looking at which ever carrier has the most convenient route and not worry about the rest. AA and AS will be given priority mainly due to lifetime AA Plat status (for as long as that stays around....)