AAdvantage vs Mileage Plus
 

I'm new to FlyerTalk and thinking about switching to United Mileage Plus from American. Sorry if there's already an existing thread, but I would like a good blow by blow comparison before I make the switch.

I fly mostly domestic coach and some international paid business class. I do care about upgrades. I'm currently a Platinum Advantage member and already have the matching elite status (Premier Executive on United). Any compelling reasons why I should or should not move my business to United?

If you plan to use your United miles for awards on Star Alliance partners, be aware that once the first flight of the itinerary departs, no changes to the other flights are allowed for any reason (even personal illness or a death in your family). The flexibility to change dates for free on AA and AA partner awards is a huge plus for me and has come in handy several times when something unexpected happened on a trip.

What's your home airport (are you a Ted airport or served by regional jets)? Where do you fly? Where do you want to redeem your miles to? You'd need to provide a little more info for anyone to really answer that.

Welcome to FlyerTalk :)

My home airports are SFO and SJC. Frequent destinations include LAX, SAN, BOS, JFK, Chicago, Dallas. International destinations - UK and Paris. I typically redeem mileage for vacation travel - long distances, to HNL, Tokyo, Australia, or Europe (UK, France). I also use mileage to purchase Admirals Club membership.

Sounds like UA would suit you better than AA, since you live in the Bay Area. UA's extensive operation from its SFO hub not only gives you more nonstop flight options to many of the destinations you listed, but also quite a few widebody options (during different times of the year) between the DEN, ORD and IAD hubs. For example, last week, UA was running three international B767-300s from SFO to IAD.

In addition, UA flies nonstop to Sydney, while on AA you would have to fly on oneworld partner QANTAS.

Finally, SFO-JFK is p.s., which is United's premium transcontinental service with international levels of service, amenities and catering. This is in stark contrast to AA's declining transcontinental service standards, which, if you've been frequenting the AA boards, has caused quite a stir.

You could probably make the case for either carrier. The UA lounge is much nicer (and larger) at SFO than AA's, but AA has a lounge at SJC where UA does not, and serves Narita from there, also (but not from SFO, where UA does).

UA does charge less miles for business class to Australia (90K, versus 125 on AA using Qantas), and does offer MRTC, where AA has done away with that. AA has some excellent benefits for top tier, but if you're not aiming for that midtier at UA might hold the edge.

Are you a credit card user? Remember that all credit card miles and bonus miles count towards lifetime status on AA (1 million gives gold, and 2 million lifetime platinum), where UA only counts actual flight miles towards million miler (lifetime PE).

I'm sure there will be plenty of others along to offer comments.

Qantas currently offers nonstops from LA, and will be flying SFO-SYD starting in March (I already have an award booking on that route). Hopefully we'll see some fare competition in that SFO-SYD market in the weeks ahead.

The downside of revenue AA on that route is that AA code-shared flights typically cost more than the Qantas branded flights. If you book the QF flight number, AA will only give you 50% miles on discounted coach, but 100% miles if you book the AA code share.

As to award travel, I've seen the posts where seats on UA are hard to find. I have upcoming Australia and NZ trips on Qantas (separate trips) and had no problem finding availability with them. Maybe someone can weigh in about availability to Australia this year on UA.

Since the OP mentioned upgrading is important, are upgrades available using AA miles on oneworld partners? If not, the QF SFO-SYD and LAX-SYD options aren't very attractive, unless you're talking about award travel only.

No, you're not going to be able to upgrade on a Qantas flight, or any other One World partner, but I thought the OP was going to use miles on that route (to Australia), just like I do.

Good time to mention that AA customer service has always been excellent for me, and the AA web site just won an award of some sort (there's a thread over on AA about that), and is very reliable, if you book travel yourself.

A lot of factors to look at when you have to make a choice :)

I agree that aa.com is pretty slick. :)

Right on. There is rumor that AA might be cutting more amenities, so I think you are better off w/UA. *A has top notch partners. The thought of being able to fly SQ or LH F alone is reason enough to switch. Yesterday I flew in J on a 767-300 DEN-SFO w/a snack service and I tell you, nothing beats that on any other carrier for a flight of that length.

Which ones?

You used your once-in-a-lifetime status match BEFORE you knew if you should switch??? :(

I consulted at a company that contracted with UAL to provide automatic 1P to Sr. Staff -- could be the case for the OP.

If possible - I would keep miles on both programs.