Col Ronson

Like others have said, not true at all.

100% Elite-Qualifying-Miles on ALL AA fares.

you get 0.5 Elite Qualifying Points per mile for deep discount fares, but you can qualify for elite status via points, segments, or miles. Miles is easiest.

Just take 3 DFW-HKG trips and you'll have 25,000 miles for gold already. If you take them in business, you'll still have 25,000 miles but you'll have 37,000 points instead. AA doesn't give miles bonus for premium fares, but they give point bonuses.

I have a lot more Elite Qualifying Miles than i do Elite Qualifying Points, but i still have Platnium status regardless. (~62k miles vs 44k pts)

Personally from experience, ive noticed that on AA and QF flights they make little mention of the oneworld alliance while on every UA flight its nonstop "proud member of the star alliance" speech as if star alliance is the only thing that UA has left going for them haha. QF doesn't even announce priority boarding for elites or anything like that i've noticed they just call out row numbers everytime.

Sykes

This is 100% false. I fly AA exclusively on premium fares and will end the year very close to 67,000 EQM and 100,500 EQP. There are no EQM bonuses at all in the standard program, although there are occasional promotions. It's 100% EQM on all fares.
tom911, your original calculations were correct.

I have the same problem that others have described--I fly J or F internationally, but lowest economy domestically. For now I'm flying premium fares on AA and economy fares on UA.

787fan

It's not just UA. I was on Asiana and even that tiny airline Aegean and they tout the words "member of star alliance" all the time.

Of course QF doesn't wanna talk about the alliance. Heck, their primary European/African partner is EK, and their primary Asian partner is what? China Eastern ??

tom911

Thanks. I have looked at two sections of the very-detailed AA forum wiki since and they both mention 100% EQM on all AA fares with no distinction between coach, business or first. For those looking at AA for the first time, there are a lot of resources HERE.

cbriddle

I'll start with an apology, because I know topics debating the best mileage programs are overly frequent. However, this is my first post and I have some specific details that I would like to get some suggestions on so please feel free to contribute!

I am 25 and travel very frequently for work. I currently have Premier 1K status with Mileage Plus and don't really have any complaints. I take 7 or 8 round trip flights from Houston to Tokyo per year, all in Business/First class, as well as several domestic segments. I also travel frequently between the US and Europe/Asia/South America in my off time, so I really utilize the mileage rewards and benefits.

I've had several people suggest that I look into switching to American, and have done some research on the aircraft I would normally take and the rewards program. If I make a move, I want to do it soon so I can get invested in the program to fully benefit from 2015 travel. My primary values in flying are as follows:

1. Seating comfort. Most of my flights are 10+ hours, so lie flat seats and good comfort in business class are probably my biggest concern. I vastly prefer United to Delta, haven't taken an AA transcontinental flight.

2. Rewards earned. Since most of my flights are in Business/First, I value what gives me the most miles per dollar spent. I also travel over 100k miles annually, so I want big bonuses for class of service and distance traveled. As I said earlier, I use my earned miles frequently so I want to look into what airlines offer the best redemption value as well.

3. In flight entertainment. Not a huge concern of mine, though United is much better than Delta in my experience. I spend enough time in the air that it does matter some, I guess. Dining is of little to no concern.

Basically, I was just hoping for some further input from people who have really experienced the benefits of both UA and AA and could offer some perspective. Aircraft quality, service consistency, customer support.. etc. I hope I've given enough information without going on too long, any contributions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

philemer

Moving to UA for expert help.

aisleorwindow

I'm not a UA fan since the merger, but honestly given your criteria I would stay with UA.

* Nonstop IAH-NRT flights
* More flatbed seats
* You'd have to do the math, but with the new mileage scheme beginning in March given your travel patterns you would likely earn more RDMs.

YMMV

DWFI

+1 concur with the above conclusion.

MSPeconomist

I agree, although OP might be hit by the 75,000 RDM limit per RT when the revenue based earning system starts next year. Another reason to stay with UA would be the generous lifetime status benefit.

Compared to some people here, 100,000 miles per year isn't necessarily a very frequent traveler. However, I'm a bit surprised that OP isn't in GS. That would improve the UA experience, although it's tough to beat having lots of nonstops from a hub.

I'm also surprised by the OP's criticism of DL which seems to run very well in terms of IROPs being relatively few and very well handled. DL has all genuine flat bed seats with direct aisle access (1-2-1 configuration with 1-1 on the 747 upper deck) on every international wide body aircraft in the fleet and these interiors are all less than five years old. It's not the same seat in every aircraft type and many of us find the 767s to be less good than the others.

sinoflyer

Just doing some guesstimating:

7 intl roundtrips, $4,000 each

7 x $4,000 = $28,000 x 11 = 308,000 RDMs, plus whatever bonuses that I am not aware of right now.

I think you will benefit by staying with UA. Besides, I'm not impressed with OW members when it comes to award travel. And the lack of an intra-China carrier is an instant deal breaker for me, but YMMV.

Welcome to FT!

XCstud

I echo the other posters that staying with UA is probably your best bet. With the change in award mileage accrual to being revenue based, you'll certainly benefit in mileage accrual.

Most of my flying is Intl J and YTD, I'm at $20k PQD and 78,500 award miles from UA flights. If next year's system were in place, I would have earned about 220,000 award miles. If you aren't unhappy with UA, I wouldn't switch.

kettle1

I have no idea what OP's beef with DL is? The last few years, DL has been superior to UA in many fronts. When is the last time the OP flew on DL, but I agree with the above posts - Based at IAH it would be UA on this one.

As for young and traveling that much, yes at 25 years old it is rare, and on the company dime sitting in F or C it is a win-win.

As for very frequent traveler. Not in my World.

To all: Safe and happy travels!

nottarockstar

I also find UA to have pretty good award availability. And further, you can use your miles on, in my opinion, better partners. I used UA miles for a great experience on SQ to Bali a few years ago.

micmcguire

Completely agree, you are going to be one of the folks who will benefit from the changes.

berto714

I think it's gotta be UA with this one. UA is the only airline with direct flights from IAH, which is a huge plus. Also, United has all lie-flat, whereas AA still has many planes with angled lie-flat.

In terms of miles, I imagine you'd earn at a similar rate on AA and UA. While the devaluation hurt MileagePlus some, many people believe AA will devalue next year once the merger is complete, so it'll probably be a wash. [EDIT - totally forgot about UA's shift in RDM earning. You will definitely earn more miles with United starting next year flying paid international business]

Can't really speak to IFE.

One other thing to keep in mind is the perks of top status with UA and AA. Many people consider AA Executive Platinum to have better perks than United 1K, and one of the main reasons is because it comes with 8 systemwide upgrades a year. Depending on your leisure travel frequency (since all of your work travel is already J/F), these may or may not be a big benefit to you.