Seeking Advice from Those in the Know
 

Hello everyone. I am very new to Mileage Plus. I work for the US Gov't, and a lot of our travel is on UA. I've just accepted a position that will require some significant travel going forward, most of it on UA. I am an AAdvantage Gold member (and in the interest of full disclosure, a former AA employee). I recently sent Mileage Plus an email with some general questions about the program and passively mentioned my AA Gold Status. Long story short, they comped me up to Premier status.

I started taking a look at the program, and my old loyalties aside, Mileage Plus looks like a better deal than AAdvantage in most ways. I thought I'd seek a little wisdom from those on the board. Is Premier status a help? Is MP a fairly good program, and UA a reasonable airline (bankruptcy aside)? I'll look forward to hearing from you and seeing if you agree with my initial assessment about the pros of Mileage Plus.

MJ

The biggest advantage of Premier status is it allows you to pre-assign Economy Plus seating at time of booking. Economy Plus seating is 35" - 1-2" more then AA's MRTC - and is on all Boeing and Airbus aircraft and soon to be on Skywest CRJ-700 aircraft.

At the highest levels (AA EXP and UA 1K), it depends on your travel patterns. AA is the better program for discounted international travel as they offer more upgrade certificates good on more fares then UA does. On the flip side, UA offers more domestic upgrade certs and with AA going to complimentary domestic upgrades, chances of being upgraded as an AA Gold or AA Platinum (as the EXPs will get first dibs) are much lower then on UA, which requires certs or miles to upgrade (therefore, many UA elites do not bother to upgrade shorter itineraries meaning more upgrade seats available).

UA has a stronger direct international presence then AA, but OneWorld (AA) and Star Alliance (UA) will pretty much get you to anywhere you want to go, so they even each other out.

UA's West Coast presence is much stronger, but AA has a strong alignment with Alaska Airlines (AS) which also provides extensive coverage of the West Coast as well as select transcons flights from SEA and LAX.

enjoy UA I do
 

Having choosen UA long ago I am sure you will ejoy your travels with the airline .This site helps w ith the little things and overall the airline and its crews try very ahrd to accomodate our requests Welcome to the family Cheers Jane :)

Welcome to FT and MP!

Having been an AA Gold and all levels of UA (except UGS :( ), I think you will find the programs comparable. UA has smaller F cabins than AA on many routes, so upgrades can be difficult, but as mentioned in a previous post, AA's new policy of unlimited ug's for their highest tier probably puts your chances about even (although you'll be more comfortable when in coach on UA because of economy plus). Considering your location, I would also think you would be much happier with UA's service out of the DC area than AA's.

There are many frustrations expressed here by IAD passengers in regards to security waits and the terrible service of UA's commuter partner, Atlantic Coast Airlines. But ACA is leaving the United Express family to everyone's delight and the security waits are not limited to UA at IAD (unfortunately, no priority lines for elite passengers).

One other negative is that on int'l routes, AA will allow you to upgrade using miles on most fares. UA will only allow on higher fares.

You should also do a search here for DC-area bonus promotions. There are many great bonus promos for DC flyers right now, although I think many of them exclude gov't fares.

Don't forget Denise, formerly of the (now extinct) 1K rooms! She was a one-woman frustration that makes the ACA frustrations pale in comparison.

Though UA did tout this non-existent feature in December, it never did materialize, and with the concentration of IAD security soon being in one area, I'm not sure how it's ever gonna happen. :( I've always had good luck with security at DCA, but I'm always afraid I'm gonna drop my laptop out of the grey bin when I move it from one side of the wall to the conveyor side.

Oh, and welcome to the UA boards. I love UA sort of like I do my brother - it's most definitely a love/hate thing, but I'm still loyal, probably out of inertia...:)

Will