US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Contingency carrier advice please...

I've got 2 months of work upcoming in ATL where I will fly in each week from PHL... Trying to decide if should stay on US or jump over to Delta to try to get a status match.

Factors:

- I'm GP now with 75K miles, so I'm not sure if I'll make CP even with a challenge (I was offered a 20 seg / 20K by 12/31 CP challenge).

- Most of my work keeps me in the south east and Florida so Delta would be a good choice as a contingency carrier if US goes away (hope not!).

- All of my flights if I take US will be on E70s, so there is no upgrade possiblity where if I go to Delta and get a status match I may be able to get upgrades. Of course, a coach seat on a E70 is (from everything I read) better than a "normal" coach seat.

- I've actually never flown Delta. I read the Skymiles stuff and man it is confusing! Looks like any "discount" fare you only get 1/2 miles toward preferred.

- US = fryingpan, Delta = fire?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Other factors I haven't thought of?

Thanks!

PS. There is also Airtran, who has FC seats... I flew them once this year PHL-ATL-DFW and they seemed a step above other LCCs...

Let me start by admitting my stance as a US CP, ffocus member and loyalist during this moment of unrest...

So I'd advise sticking it out w/ US as that's the only way to help them stay alive. As a former Gold medallion member of Delta's chaotic program, I came over to US when Delta imposed all of the unbelievable restrictions in the program. Essentially, you fly more and have to pay more for your mileage balance to actually grow.

US will undoubtedly make it through the holiday season and we will wait to see what 1st quarter 2005 looks like, but for now, I feel confident that the lights in Crystal City will stay on a while.

Thoughts from an optimist!

Airtran is a step above the other LCCs because they offer a business class product. It's pretty simple, but they don't make it out to be anything more than a roomier seat. Their planes are new(mostly 717's), just like SW(737s) and JetBlue(A320s). They also have a scaled down hub operation in ATL, just like JB does at JFK and SW does at BWI (among others).

I read briefly, too, that Airtran's rewards program somehow lets you redeem miles for travel on any carrier. But I didn't go into more details, so I'm not sure how that works exactly.

What makes them a good choice is that they make no bones about their products/services and charge an accordingly fair price.

You won't find that with Delta(rational fares), and the Skymiles program is pretty crappy IMHO.

Well DL is looking more and more like Chapter 11 protection may be their only option, so it's kinda "darned if you do, darned if you don't". Air Tran would probably be the better choice if all your travel moving forward was to cities they served.

All things considered, if you can make CP you might as well stay with US. By the end of the year, your travel patterns might change again and if US does pull through, you have top tier status. If their survival looks dicey, well DL will probably either be in C11 by then or found a way to stay out so you can see what that holds. You can also see what the new year holds in terms of travel plans and see which airline best serves those needs.

If you are looking for a lot of free domestic award travel, AirTran's FF program is extremely generous, especially if you are making frequent short business-class flights:

http://www.airtran.com/programs/aplus/index.jsp

It's roughly 5 biz class RTs = free trip (3 credits/RT -> 16 needed)
and it's roughly 6 free RTs = companion pass

It beats getting DAL miles 500 at a time.

In addition, if you pay with your Amex on airtran.com, the program is unbelievable - a free round-trip after every three flights:

5 credits/biz RT -> 16 needed for free flight

Stick with usair. Why leave now?

You can always fly another airline if and when the time comes.