Originally Posted by ecaarch

I have a ton of experience with Delta (DL) and zero experience with JetBlue (B6) so I'll share what I know about DL and what I can ascertain from your calculations about B6.

Every time you fly on a paid DL ticket on your route, you will earn approx. 5000 SkyMiles and 5000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs). MQMs are what gives you status. When you reach 25,000 MQMs within a calendar year, you will be a Silver Medallion (FO) for the remainder of that year and 14 months after that. For example, if you earn 25,000 MQMs by May, 2009, you will be FO for all of 2009 and 14 months after (until February 2011). Achieving Gold Medallion (GM) and Platinum Medallion (PM) work the same way when you reach 50,000 and 75,000 MQMs in a calendar year. However, the calculator resets to zero on January 1 each year. If you fly three roundtrips and accumulate 15,000 SkyMiles and 15,000 MQMs each year, you will not earn status and you will not get any mileage bonuses.

Based on the math, it will take 15 paid trips on DL to accrue 75,000 SkyMiles which can then be redeemed (if there is award availability) for 3 RT coach tickets.

Similarly, it will take 15 paid trips on B6 to accrue 360 TrueBlue points which can then be redeemed (is award availability an issue with B6?) for 3 RT coach tickets.

It looks pretty equal based on your travel plans. However, you are projecting your travel out to 2014. That is a long way out and all sorts of things can change. Maybe you'll toss a few transatlantic (TATL) flights in there. You can earn miles on those if you choose DL, but no points if you choose TrueBlue.