Based in Oz, is it worth moving from UA to OW?

[djc0]

I'm moving to Melbourne in a couple of months from California and am looking for advice on whether to stick with my UA *G or go for a status match with AA to take advantage of QF locally and other OW carriers out of Australia.

My circumstances:

I'm in academia, meaning i have a pot of money each year from which to draw my travel budget. When it's gone its gone, so i tend to be slightly conservative with prices. Meaning that i usually fly the cheaper fares and then use my miles/coupons + status to upgrade. It works well for me in the US. I almost always fly UA business (using coupons) within the US (once a month) regardless of the initial economy ticket i've purchased. And i have lots of miles from my domestic flights (using the 100% bonus from being premier exec.) that i can upgrade on international trips (2-4 times per year).

What i value most is a reasonable fare, a seat with at least the equivalent of economy+ legroom (which i think is standard for most non-US airlines), and most importantly a pain free experience at the airport (priority lines, boarding, etc). Maintaing *G would get me this last one, but would be at the cost of losing a local carrier (no domestic *A in Australia - i'll probably just fly with the cheapest airline, with or without a FF program).

If i moved to OW i would benefit from local QF flights and lounges (with status match). But i'm unsure about how AA/QF view their economy FF's, how hard it is to upgrade, priority treatment, maintain your status, etc. Especially when compared with UA, with whom i'm very happy (even though their aircraft are somewhat sub-standard by comparison).

In other words, once in Australia is it worth shifting loyalties or simply sicking with UA *G?

Opinions welcome!

 

[Dave Noble]

I would still recommend that which I gave on the FT thread

Welcome to AFF

Dave

 

[straitman]

djc0,

Welcome to AFF.

As alluded by Dave Noble there is no easy answer to this one. Many here (in Oz) stick with OW due the lack of suitable *A presence since the Ansett debarkle.

Like Dave said, your best bet is to read and research all you can and then get to the specific questions. The Flyer Talk forum will probably give you more information and quite possibly have some who have already been down the same road as yourself.

Good luck with your search.

 

[simongr]

If i moved to OW i would benefit from local QF flights and lounges (with status match). But i'm unsure about how AA/QF view their economy FF's, how hard it is to upgrade, priority treatment, maintain your status, etc. Especially when compared with UA, with whom i'm very happy (even though their aircraft are somewhat sub-standard by comparison).

In other words, once in Australia is it worth shifting loyalties or simply sicking with UA *G?

Opinions welcome!

If you join AA (not sure that they will status match but they do "challenges" for Platinum and Gold status - so not top tier) you wont be able to use those miles to upgrade to Biz on QF - you need to have QF F points.

Might be worth working out the Status Credits you might earn in a year and whether it is worth joining the QFF program.

If you can however maintain decent status with AA though they have better redemption rates than QFF.

I would most likely go with whatever Dave Noble suggested though

 

[djc0]

Thanks all. Your advice has been very helpful.

After thinking through a number of different scenarios it seems that the best alternative to staying with UA is to move to AA for OW Sapphire status. But for now i might just stick with UA, and next year i'll see where i'm at.

At least then i'll have a better sense of how things work (and how i can make it work for me!).