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Jealous Cow: Apr 4, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

I've made some stupid mistakes on accruing miles this year. It's my first year traveling for work and just didn't think it through. I have the following qualifying balances:

AA: 11.7k
Delta: 9.4k
UA: 9.6k
US: 20k

I need to book IAD -> LAX -> MEL and back for early November, along with some other domestic travel, and I'm trying to figure out where I should put those miles. The travel to Australia could either go on UA/US or AA and another 4 or 5k in domestic travel could also be UA/US or AA. The trip to Australia will put me in Silver on US and the additional domestic travel would put me in Gold, so I'm leaning toward booking on UA and using my US number.

But, I'm concerned about what's going to happen with this merger and the potential transition from *A to OW.

I'm going to be doing probably 50-75k miles next year as well, including one or two SE asia or Europe trips, but mostly domestic RIC/IAD to AUS, DEN, and SFO. Any ideas?

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 15:26

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# ¿ May 1, 2024 18:08

Jealous Cow: Apr 4, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Mackieman posted:

Are you WAS-based? The choice of program depends very much on what you want to get out of it. What is most important to you about a loyalty program? Upgrades? Award redemption? Better seats (irrespective of upgrades)? Lower fees? Lack of regional jets?

I think there is some healthy skepticism to be had concerning the US/AA merger. Mergers are nearly wholly customer unfriendly moves and there is almost no chance of the loyalty program being better on the other side of it. We saw this with DL, and we see it today with UA. I still bank with UA because I like access to E+ seats because I'm 6'8", but the value proposition may be different for you.

I'm currently based out of RIC but frequently drive to IAD for departure, and I will probably be moving to CLE next year. My main concern is upgrades. I'm also tall (not as tall as you) and I cannot get any work done in economy. I frequently pay for first class upgrades just so I can bill another 3 or 4 hours of work.

Awards would be nice. I also have about 90k AMEX points which seem pretty useless so I'm considering switching to an airline-partner card such as Chase MilePlus Club.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 18:09

Jealous Cow: Apr 4, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Mackieman posted:

Based on the totals you provided above, if we consider IAD-MEL round trip to net you about 15,000 EQM, your total for the year is sitting between 65,000 and 70,000 EQM. This will only provide mid-tier status at most airlines (UA is Gold at 50K, AA is Platinum at 50K, DL is 50K for Gold, and US is 50K for Gold) and is simply not going to net you the upgrade benefits you're looking for unless you exclusively fly leisure routes at off-peak times. I have Gold status with UA and have a roughly 50% upgrade rate because I normally try to do exactly that: off-peak times on leisure routes. When I have to fly for work or at a peak time, my upgrade chances are very slim. Moreover, AA doesn't offer complementary upgrades unless you're Executive Platinum (100K EQM) and those that do prioritize based on status and then fare bucket. So if you're buying cheap fares, your chances are even more remote.

To that end, chasing upgrades may not be the best plan for you. AA offers buy ups at the kiosk only, but there's no guarantee they'll be offered or that you'll want to pay what they're charging. Same deal for UA: they offer buy ups but it's not really buying an upgrade so much as it is buying up to the fare at which you would get upgraded automatically based on market. The exception to that is elite status wherein when you buy a Y or B fare (full fare unrestricted coach) you get upgraded automatically (and on M fares if you're a 1K (100K EQM)). US also has day of departure upgrades but I'm not as familiar with how they do them.

Given that you said you wanted more legroom because you're tall and want to work on the plane, I might suggest throwing your loyaty to UA wherein Gold elites get access to Economy Plus at booking. The extra couple of inches of legroom make it a whole lot easier to work on your laptop if you need to during a flight. They're horribly behind the market in terms of WiFi but it is coming over the next six to nine months. Delta also has a version of this but it's more limited and not as much room. I think AA is doing it as well so that's something to look at. The other reason to choose UA is because of the Star Alliance and UA's incredibly flexible award routing rules. You can do some really cool stuff with UA miles that you can't do with other alliances or carriers.

If you want to get a card, I would suggest the Chase Sapphire card wherein you earn points for purchases, 2x points for restaurants and travel purchases, and they can transfer on a 1:1 basis to UA or a couple other places. Amex points are great for some things but not if you want to do business with UA; they're all Chase all the time.

Thanks for all the info. I do have a Sapphire Preferred card but I never use it. I'm considering switching to it as my primary and shelving the Amex, or asking for a product change to MileagePlus Club for the Preferred Access, free checked bag, and club access.

I unfortunately don't pay for most of my airfare. It is almost all booked through my company's travel agency on the corporate credit card, so I need to look at bonus rewards for non-airline purchases, which is why the 1.5 miles per $1 on all purchases on the MileagePlus Club looks attractive.

Maybe I'm just putting too much thought into this and am stuck in that zone between "flys enough to care" and "flys enough to earn status".

Edit: Actually if I pay attention to the Chase Ultimate Rewards and that offer 5-6 points per $1 I can rack up points really fast.

Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 9, 2013

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 22:25

Jealous Cow: Apr 4, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Thanks guys. I'm probably going to be flying UA almost exclusively. They, along with Delta and AA, are our "preferred" airline partners and Delta/AA have horrible availability out of RIC. My domestic flights are usually ~$700-1000.

Edit: and I really should travel for pleasure more often anyway. Maybe having milage thresholds to hit will get me out and about.

Edit2: United is offering $399 RT IAD to SAL. I guess I could rack up some miles that way :lol:

Taking the route through IAH is 2400 miles each way. Not sure I want to go to El Salvador though.

Jealous Cow fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Oct 9, 2013

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 23:01

Jealous Cow: Apr 4, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

sellouts posted:

Eh. Aside from being an international destination fly a few JFK-LAX transcons. I was getting mine for ~440. and it's 2500 each way.

But yeah, use your miles. It took me 10 years but I finally did this year and it felt so good to at least use 400k of them while they had a little value.

Wow $378 RT EWR to LAX the week after next. I have to travel on business that week, maybe I'll book my return flight to JFK and spend a few days in LA (Where I grew up, actually).

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 23:17

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