Boy was I confused. I was opening the mail today and found an envelope from Delta. It said Gold Medallion on the front. I open the envelop and find a letter congratulating me on earning Gold Medallion status on Delta.

Time for a confesssion. I haven't flown Delta in at least two years. Last year, someone here posted a notice about Delta matching status (vs. US Air) so I sent in the info and I received Gold Medallion status until Feb 2003. Big whoop, 4 months.

Never gave it another thought. And here comes my "earned" Gold status from Delta.

Boy, it would have been nice if US Air extended status for a year, what with the turmoil in the industry. Maybe dropping only one level. Loyalty, what a kick in the butt. If Delta wasn't so, so, Delta, I might even think of flying them.

Oh well, later this year, maybe I will use the Delta card to get Gold status elswhere, and in January, I will ask US to comp me to match my gold status. We will see. At least if I fly Delta, I can have priority check in and boarding.

Consider yourself lucky. I tried to get gold comped on delta, and they said no. I am silver on DL and Chairmans on US, and Gold on CO. I flew 17 segments on DL in December because I like their change of policy, I fly mostly Y fares. Since they rejected the comp, I have not flown DL, and kept the miles on US. DL has already lost about 10 flights, Y fares from me this year.

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US CP CO Gold DL Silver HH Diam HI Plat Marr Gold AVIS Pres HERTZ Pres

A Delta GM, in order to upgrade, will almost always need a more expensive ticket than a USAirways customer traveling the same class on a similar routing.I have comped GM status via my Amex Card, and have only used it in situations where I had missed th window on advance purchase, and was going to have to use the higher fare anyway. One note. Haven't flown DL in a few months, but when I did, the first class meal service was far superior to US.

Yeah, but I'll fly on a DASH-8 and connect on any of US's hubs before I fly into Atlanta and run through the airport to only find that the generator broke on the plane and there's a lengthy delay anyway, or the printer at the gate is jammed, or any a number of chaotic events that hit me every single time I connect in Atlanta. I can't imagine connecting in Atlanta every week. 2 week ago my Platinum Medallion friend missed her connection into Sarasota and didn't get home for 3 days. They wouldn't confirm a seat for her because it's "season" for Sarasota. And she's platinum. And it wasn't her fault. Could you imagine this on USair???

2 week ago my Platinum Medallion friend missed her connection into Sarasota and didn't get home for 3 days


???????????


What she couldn't drive from Atlanta to Sarasota sooner? She must have really wanted her flight segments. Is her name Jamilla by the way?? Sounds like a former co-worker of mine.

Tampa airport is only an hour away (which is why SRQ has lost so much service).

No not Jamilla. She went on "standby" repeatedly, if she'd known from the beginning how long it had taken she would have driven, but she kept thinking she'd get home this time.

As far as Tampa - Sarasota, there are lots of folks who live 10 minutes - 15 minutes from the Sarasota airport. A drive to Tampa (hour-1.5 hours plus rush our on that interstate is not easy) is ridiculous when Delta offers AM service. USAir does not. I've Emailed them about not leaving a single plane there overnight for AM travelers. Residents are quite reluctant to drive to Tampa.

If the original comp period is very short, most airlines will extend the comp period through one more year. This is United's policy as well.

irabk --You didn't get comped because Delta was being nice or just extended people. If you don't fly this year, its unlikely you'll get anything this year...

That said, it was nice that US would only drop people one level at a time. It was a nice differentiator. I guess it's pretty easy to requal on a challenge however.

This is what USAirways told me about it via email:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">In answer to your question regarding reducing the status by only one level, that was our previous practice. This year, however, the decision was made to offer our
members the status they had actually earned, or to reduce the level by one or two steps based on earning a certain amount of miles or segments in 2002. </font>

They have leeway to make individual decisions, and I seem to recall some people with 0 miles last year still only being dropped one level on this board. But that's what THEY SAY

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
irabk --You didn't get comped because Delta was being nice or just extended people. If you don't fly this year, its unlikely you'll get anything this year...

That said, it was nice that US would only drop people one level at a time. It was a nice differentiator. I guess it's pretty easy to requal on a challenge however.[/B]</font>

But the point is that I didn't fly anything on Delta LAST year. They comped me the 4 months, and I flew zero, nada, zilch after they comped me. Then they extended Gold for another year.

My point is that since I had the comped Gold, and I didn't fly Delta at all, they still extended Gold for another year. It would have been nice if US Air had extended us that same generosity. Both the wife & I were Gold on US Air. Last year, we flew enough to qualify for Silver. So this year, we are Silver. If they had kept us Gold, I would have valued that much more than the Gold from Delta.

Well Delta comp'ed me to Gold last year, but I got NOTHING this year. I even flew them twice (once on free tickets though).