tommyleo

I highly doubt US leaves *A if the merger doesn't happen.

wethereyet

I booked a US award flight using my UA miles for May 2014. Is there any clarification how this will be handled?

rabtech

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayi...march/2901149/

hub-captive

Was this post inspired by the 1.1 cpm share miles offer?

tya

I am also deciding between UA and US for a flight I'll make in early November. The former guarantees me 50% mile accrual on my other *A program while the latter allows 100%.

Wondering if anyone knows if it is safe to go for US? Will it most likely remain in *A next month?

username

Huh? This was originally posted in the Star Alliance thread and someone moved it over.

I guess the questions are 3 fold:

1 - will the tickets be honored or UA has to reroute you? -> I wonder what the precedence / *A rule has been in other case (thus it makes more sense for this thread to be in the *A Forum but someone moved it)

2 - what happen if you need to make a change? -> I am guessing if you change after they leave *A, then you can't fly on them

3 - will your *A benefits be honored? -> I am guessing no

No chance US will leave *A November 2013. The trial is mid November. They can't merge until there is a verdict approving the merger (or settlement). Even before the DOJ suit, US was targeting 1/1/2014. It won't be earlier than that for sure.

tya

Oh thanks for the note. Wasn't really following the news since I don't fly U.S. domestic often. But now since it's secured I will set off on US!

anabolism

June is winter in South Africa, so you might prefer to travel in 2015 when you can plan the trip better and save money and miles for it. You might also want to go to Cape Town as well as Johannesburg.

The award chart is only part of the story. In addition to the number of miles needed, other factors to consider are fuel surcharges and award availability, plus equipment type and schedules (to maximize enjoyment of the flights).

One option would be to wait until 2015, and book flights on Cathay Pacific using AA miles (assuming the merger goes through). Especially if you can spring for first class, Cathay is very nice, and award availability is usually much better than on AA or BA. As an AA agent reminded me yesterday, Etihad Airways is available (I haven't tried them yet.)

If you take your time and plan everything well in advance, you have the best chance of grabbing the awards you need. For example, Cathay usually makes two first class seats available 11-12 months ahead, and then more seats a few days ahead.

You can also use the time to take advantage of various credit card bonus offers to get miles in US and AA. Also, the Starwood cards earn points that can be transferred to most airlines at a 25% bonus (for increments of 20k).

moondog

I agree that availability, equipment, and YQ are important considerations. Furthermore, I prefer CX to almost all *A carriers.

BUT, AA's premium (in terms of miles required) over US between the USA and Africa is non-trivial:

-40k for business class
-50k for first class

With US miles, you can forget about flying SQ in a premium cabin, but there are a few other options from which to choose: LH/Swiss, TG, TK, and SAA. Among these, LH and Swiss can be challenging with respect to F redemptions, but TG if is not especially hard to snag, and I really like it. I've never flown TK or SAA so I can't comment on their services first hand, but I've heard nice things. They are two class only... so no F option.

yuel

So in preparation of US moving to OW, I will be doing the US share miles promo to acquire more miles in hoping they will become AA miles next year, AA has awful bonus promo compare to the sharing promo.

yqtyyz

I have an award booking through AC's Aeroplan for a PHL-FRA on US in J next summer.

Would it be reasonable to assume that my confirmed booking and baggage allowances will be grandfathered should the OW switch occur as others have mentioned?

Superguy

It cracks me up that a lot are assuming US is moving to OW. There is no indication of that if the merger doesn't go thru. All we know is that US will move to OW IF the merger goes thru. They have given no indication of any plans if it doesn't, and certainly have made no indication that they will leave *A if the merger collapses.

I wouldn't be making any plans on any moving miles, changing alliances, etc, until we know for sure whether or not the merger goes thru. But hey, it's not my miles or status, so do what you will. Just don't come back crying if US remains in *A.

Superguy

I'd presume the booking would be ok. I wouldn't presume any status/baggage allowance carrying over outside of what your class of service entitles you too, assuming US leaves *A.

VLtone

I took a look at the AA partner awards chart to see what a trip to Africa would cost. The 14,000 to 20,000 miles tier indicated I would need 100k for coach, 130k for business and 180k for first - so it's definitely a bit higher than *A according to what I'm seeing.

KennyBSAT

You are looking at the distance-based explorer awards, which are great to some areas and offer lots of flexibility. Try http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/a...rtnerChart.jsp 37500 miles each way U.S.-Africa in economy.