MilesBuzz! - What should I do ? Delta or NWA

I am uncertain if this is the right thread but here is my dilemna. I am a US Airways Gold and I have been silver or gold on Delta for years but due to their changes am not going to get either this year. Nothwest comped me a silver status 2 weeks ago until February 2004. I am hoping that they will extend it to 2005 when they see my travel schedule. I am going from GSO to OAK the 21st of December. The only viable route is through Delta. Should I use my Delta FF number and perhaps some of the millions of upgrades that I have festering in that account, or should I use the NWA FF number and put the miles there? To further complicate things, I have a skymiles balance of 91k . If I take this trip it is about 6500 miles which would give me enough skymiles for one last business class hurrah ticket to Europe.
Your advice is appreciated!!

You may wish to do the last hurrah and liquidate SkyMiles. Then, concentrate on NW.

Actually, don't. Everybody seems to be flocking to NW. Next year I'll need Super-Duper Titanium status to score any upgrades at all.

Go NW. They can't be as bad as DL. I think you only need 80K for a Business class to Europe so the mileage should not matter. Plus would you want to be on a plane with blind flight attendants? Don't laugh my wife used to work for Delta in Marketing and even though she is blind they made her work domestic and international flights. Safety first by a woman who can't tell the difference between a can of Coke and a can of Tomato Juice...

But I wouldn't want to let those miles languish at Delta no matter how bad I thought they were (and as far as service, I think they're superior to NW, which isn't saying much). So I vote for topping off your Delta account and burning those miles.

Or get your NW elite membership and redeem your SkyMiles for tickets on NW.

But will you be able to buy the DL ticket giving your SM number, apply upgrade points to move to the front and then, at the gate, change to the WorldPerks number without:

1 - Losing the UG, and
2 - Now having the WP number instead of the SM number in the record so that the UG points will not work on the return.

AFAIK, there have been no first-hand reports of this scenario posted on these boards by any SM Medallion.

Edited to remind all interested in this subject to keep an eye on this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum21/HTML/012472.html


[This message has been edited by monitor (edited Nov 30, 2003).]

thanks for the input. As it stands now, I have booked the Delta trip and my skymiles account # is on it. I will try to upgrade and then see if I can get NW miles. I will let you know what happens.