austin_res

+1. Some of AA's partners offer a better onboard product than AA. So the partnership is best of both worlds - I get my AA miles and a better flying experience.

username

Wait unitl it becomes revenue based. Then it gets a little messy depending on how they implement it.

I was HP Platinum before the Parker takeover and US merger. When they did the $2 for water thing, I promptly moved to WN and UA. Even though company pays for these things if I choose to buy one, it just was too customer unfriendly.

My observation is that the US management team has the ability to adapt and learn. Between that and the UA/CO debacle (where some CO senior management have been cleaned out recently), they should be a little smarter than knowing AA is a whole different aminal (just as Frontier would be ) and be a little careful.

I think the end result would be an airline that is more like AA than US. However, every inch AA goes down to the US level (e.g. award availability and perks for elites), will give UA the incentive to follow.

burlax

You may be surprised, but a lot of US elites are pretty happy right now. Between the service quality, the fare levels, OTP, and upgrade %%, we don't have much to complain about for now.

Although US management team may not come across as a geniuses, I think they are smart enough to learn from the UA/CO merger, which they claimed they did. At the very least, from their intended course of action ( migration to AA ), it seems that they are not as reckless as $mi$ek to start innovations and enhancements mid-integration.

carsnoceans

Given the upcoming merger would it be a good idea to hold the miles in my DM account until post-merger or burn them on domestic flights this year? I don't find US Airways redemptions particularly attractive. Just wondering what are folks planning to do with their DM miles before it merges with AA program.

PS - I don't have any status on DM nor it's my preferred program. So even for upgrades I would be hit with the upgrade fees.

UAPremExecflyer

Er ... did you read this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...n-thread.html?

BoeingBoy

While few details are available, I wouldn't base usage on the merger unless you prefer *A partners to those that will be available in OW. The "new" merged AA will be in OW so if you want to use your miles in the *A go ahead and use them while they're still usable there. Otherwise they'll still be available for use in OW.

Jim

carsnoceans

Thanks Jim. When is the expectation for the two programs to merge? Late 2014?

BoeingBoy

I wouldn't expect a full merger of programs until 6-12 months after the "official" OK for the AA Plan of Reorganization (expected by the end of 3rd quarter this year). Having said that, some things will happen pretty quickly, like awards/mileage earning on each others flights or being able to purchase each others flights on either website.

Jim

fly747first

Key words: "for now." Just wait until the merger is complete and low/middle-tier elites never get upgraded.

SS255

It's not going to be much of a picnic for the top tier elites, either.

After the UA/CO merger went into effect, they came out with a statement (and it may have been an unofficial statement) that the combined program had far more elites than originally anticipated. I believe this was prior to the combined program going into effect, so elites on both sides can expect to feel the squeeze once the (expected) reciprocal benefits kick in.

So glad I'm sitting this one out.

nycoaz

I am a US Airways million mile flyer. In their current program that gives me lifetime silver status. American Airlines program gives million mile flyers lifetime gold status. Since the merger will be using American Airlines frequent flyer program does anyone know if that means that the million mile flyers from US Airways will now get lifetime gold status?

swag

No, no one knows. Nothing has been announced yet. But since US Silver and AA Gold are about equivalent in terms of qualification (25K miles/year; 1 MM for LT status), it seems like a decent bet that your lifetime status will be converted to AA LT GLD.

BoeingBoy

While the FF program will likely be called "AAdvantage" it doesn't mean that the details will remain the same as the current AAvantage program. There will almost certainly be a mix of the two FF programs that makes up the new "AAdvantage" program.

Jim

SS255

And I would be very surprised if "The New AAdvantage" did not add a revenue qualifier...

PWMTrav

I bet they will, but not right away. Post-merger, it's all going to be about image building - retaining their own elites and not scaring off others from potentially coming over. Not having a revenue qualifier is now a differentiator among large US airlines.

Beyond that, I don't know about on AA, but with US it's kind of hard to mileage run anyway. You can't get creative with routing and I just haven't seen too many low hub-hub fares that would enable it. My hunch is that I don't think US has a revenue problem with its elites. Even if they do, I don't expect to ever qualify above Silver anyway since my travel isn't on business, it's just for leisure and a very spread out extended family. Sadly, with the number of PWM-PHL and DCA runs I do, I know I'm north of 10 cents per mile since those fares are never cheap unless I plan WAY out.