MilesBuzz! - Would you go with Delta or UA FF promgram living near NYC airports

Traveling to all major US cities and some trips to canada and Uk. What I like about UA is that you can buy an economy plus pass. while your ranking up miles.

I would defenitely go for UA as you can easily reach Premier status which entitels you to upgrades to economy plus at the time of booking.

No surprise considering my Forum name here :-) but I'm not affiliated with Delta, just a loyal flyer, and the reason I prefer it is that even the lowest ranks of their frequent flyer program (SkyMiles Medallion) are treated so well. Special check-in areas, boarding ahead of non-member flyers, etc. They help you build fast into categories (Silver, Gold, Platinum and a new one they're calling Diamond). Lots of upgrade advantages along the way. And with the Northwest merger, the number of destinations goes up to 355 in 64 countries. (I do a lot of international travel, which makes Delta a good choice for me.) Hope that helps.

In NYC the obvious choice would be Delta. I can't imagine UA having anywhere close to the number of flights out of JFK/LGA/EWR/HPN/SWF. ISP is the only airport where DL doesn't dominate (they completely pulled out a couple of years ago). I haven't flown UA in over 15 years, so I can't speak to their service.

If you care about decent award availability at the most advertised mileage price levels -- such as 25k miles for a roundtrip domestic coach ticket in the continental US -- and don't like the possibility of having to pay the highest award ticket fees in the US industry, then I would not recommend DL's program.

If you care about decent award availability at the most advertised mileage price levels -- such as 25k miles for a roundtrip domestic coach ticket in the continental US -- and don't like the possibility of having to pay the highest award ticket fees in the US industry, then I would not recommend DL's program.

+1 I only fly Delta on mistake fares. Skymiles are about the most worthless currency out there.

If you care about decent award availability at the most advertised mileage price levels -- such as 25k miles for a roundtrip domestic coach ticket in the continental US -- and don't like the possibility of having to pay the highest award ticket fees in the US industry, then I would not recommend DL's program.

I do agree with tis , however the OP as well as anyone else needs to realize that most likely flying UA will mean flying a RJ to IAD and connecting from there.

UA doesnt run an hourly shuttle and it does at times mean alot of wasting of times waiting for your next flight, especially back to NY

That said Ive done it a few times this year and since Time is on my side , knowing that E+ was awaiting me on my longer flight it was well worth it

So if times is important or Non-stops then DL wins, if free tkts and comfort on teh plane is important then UA wins out.

PS- looking to do a couple of TATL in Nov and DL wants 95k and more $$ in txs. AA is 40k,CO 50k, UA 55k. So unless a person would be earning 2 DL miles when it would be only 1 mile elsewhere, I suggest staying as far away from DL as is possible

Consider AA also esp if you're flying to Europe.

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Simple, for better flight options and upgrade opportunities, the answer is Delta. For better award availability and award partners/options, UA is your solution.

If you care about decent award availability at the most advertised mileage price levels -- such as 25k miles for a roundtrip domestic coach ticket in the continental US -- and don't like the possibility of having to pay the highest award ticket fees in the US industry, then I would not recommend DL's program.

Good points certainly, but to be fair to DL (you can't really think every aspect of them is atrocious)... Their in-flight entertainment is better (AVOD on (most?) transcons). UA and DL are equal now on beer since UA started carrying Leinenkugel. :D And the number of nonstops DL has from JFK (frequently an unpleasant experience at T2/T3) does allow for trips on a Friday night after work which might not be possible on UA. That said, I'm keeping status on both, but if I had to choose, I would drop DL Platinum status before I'd drop UA 1k.

If you select UA, you'll likely spend some time in CO metal out of EWR. That's good in that it adds a ton of destinations for you, but there's no E+.

I drool when I look at Delta's route map - to me, they have the most interesting collection of destinations served nonstop from the US on DL metal. I like the secondary markets they serve: they don't just dump you off at CDG and say "Have fun with the rest of Skyteam." But I know little about Skymiles or how upgrading works.

If you end up hitting top-tier on UA, you'll get 6 SWU's. I personally like the UA SWU system: I don't mind the 777 C seats and I use them TATL where the eligible W fare is generally only $75-110 each way higher than the S fare.

You mention Canada: if you do a lot of Canada, that's another plus for Star Alliance since you can fly AC.

Depending on your destination mix, I wouldn't necessarily rule out AA - they have a strong presence at JFK. I've been an AA member longer than anything else and always been pleased at award availability. I was Plat for a few years and felt like they treated their mid-tiers better than any other US carrier. It's been a while, so no idea if that's still true...

Consider AA also esp if you're flying to Europe.

I would say only if London or Paris is where a person is heading off to. Otherwise AA is very poor compared to DL or CO. Some flights are ORD only or DFW only, and not served via JFK

True...the main thing I was thinking of was that the OP mentioned the UK and AA has at least four (more?) 777's per day to LHR.

If his destination in the UK is northern England or Scotland, then it might not matter as much...probably 1-stop on any of the three alliances.

Traveling to all major US cities and some trips to canada and Uk. What I like about UA is that you can buy an economy plus pass. while your ranking up miles.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/1008536-how-can-610-freqent-flyer-always-get-good-seat.html


Bsmooth1,

Welcome to Flyertalk,

In the future, fellow FT'ers will be able to give you the best advice if you give them the best information. In the above post, you state you are 6' 10" tall. Your height overrides all the above comments. You need leg room!!

Let us know how many actual flight miles you expect to fly per year and to what extent you can do it on one airline.

One poster above noted a very important consideration. Continental is now Star Alliance and Continental flys nonstop to everywhere (well almost) out of Newark. If Newark is convenient for you, CO may be your horse. UA Economy Plus is good, but if you are flying UA Codeshare Regional Jets, E+ does not apply. Good idea for me, I live in DC, but not so good for NYC.

My two cents.

With United, some of the United Express RJ's do have E+ and F. Basically, you're looking for the CRJ-700's (sometimes abbreviated to "CR7") and Embraer 170's ("E70"). The big Embraer also has a wider coach seat: as RJ's go, it's a comfy plane.

Not sure how many of these you'll see around NYC - I flew EWR-IAD two weeks ago on an Embraer 145: no E+ or F. I felt like I was crawling in and out of that little fuselage and I'm only 6'4".

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/1008536-how-can-610-freqent-flyer-always-get-good-seat.html


Bsmooth1,

Welcome to Flyertalk,

In the future, fellow FT'ers will be able to give you the best advice if you give them the best information. In the above post, you state you are 6' 10" tall. Your height overrides all the above comments. You need leg room!!

Let us know how many actual flight miles you expect to fly per year and to what extent you can do it on one airline.

One poster above noted a very important consideration. Continental is now Star Alliance and Continental flys nonstop to everywhere (well almost) out of Newark. If Newark is convenient for you, CO may be your horse. UA Economy Plus is good, but if you are flying UA Codeshare Regional Jets, E+ does not apply. Good idea for me, I live in DC, but not so good for NYC.

My two cents.


35k to 50k miles a year. I am now trying to stay with one airline. Newark may be tough to get to for me.

Simple, for better flight options and upgrade opportunities, the answer is Delta. For better award availability and award partners/options, UA is your solution.

Probably so for domestic upgrades, but do compare DL's upgradeable international fares to UA's.

From personal experience...

On Delta the passenger is ALWAYS wrong.

Choose Delta at your own peril.

:td: :td: :td:

I was a UA 1K for 10 years (and PremEx for a number of years before that) but, happy as I generally was with the MP program and with E+, I dropped them when they dropped their non-hub service to NYC. I've had VERY bad experiences with their NYC-IAD flights (even on the odd occasion when they use a mainline jet rather than an RJ), which tend to cancel or at least be seriously delayed at the merest hint of bad weather; too much stress trying to get away, so if LON is your destination, I'd encourage you to think about flying another airline. (If EWR doesn't work for you, then flying CO, regardless of where you choose to deposit the miles, is not going to work for you.)
I had a horrible experience with DL years ago and avoid them whenever I can, and their FF program is an unfunny joke, but they do serve any number of appealing destinations from JFK nowadays.
I've been quite happy with AA; while they've dropped a number of domestic non-stops from NYC and switched some of the TATL flights to 757's, which I dislike, since I've switched to them, I've found the AAdvantage program more generous with award and upgrade availability than UA's, and their staff in general far nicer and more customer-oriented.
But it really depends on what you value most.

The UA program is probably better than DL's but the actual travel options on DL are going to be significantly better. Another option is to fly CO and credit to UA. You get the benefits of the UA program and non-stop flights to quite a few locations from NYC.

Unless reward travel is unimportant to you, I would avoid DL until and unless they improve their award availability. I'm platinum in both CO and DL and, candidly, a DL mile is now worth about half a CO mile (now that CO joins the Star Alliance this week).

Example: earlier this month, I tried to book a standard award to Asia on DL for next year. They are, by far the biggest US airline to Asia. No low mileage seats whatsoever, regardless of flexibility. No problem finding seats on UA or AA.

The problem though is if, as you say, EWR is inconvenient for you. With US and DL swapping slots (DL picking up LGA slots for DCA slots), DL will be, by far, the biggest legacy carrier at JFK and LGA. Not that there aren't other choices there, of course. And if you include EWR, CO is NYC's biggest airline.