Travel is likely higher for me this year. I have a legitimate shot for at least mid-tier elite, if not higher. And I'm finding, the more I look at the options, the less it matters to me.
My priorities are IFE, domestic upgrades, domestic award redemption, and international award redemption, in that order.
For the places I fly (mostly small cities in the Northeast, sometimes Southeast/Midwest) my options are usually US, UA, and DL/NW.
If I take US, there's no IFE, the "upgrade" is fairly worthless, and I have high domestic award fees.
With UA, I get Channel 9 but I'm almost always going to be sitting in the back. And the fees, while lower, are still annoying.
Then there's DL... Maybe half the time I'll have IFE. I've got a good shot at sitting up front. But all the devaluation and benefit cutting leave me nervous of how next year's program will look. Finding it hard to trust DL management.
Gradually, I've begun to care less and less about the legacy frequent flyer programs. For transcons, I'm quickly approaching the point of resigning myself to a coach seat and picking whichever is cheaper, as long as there is an IFE system.
For shorter hops, I'm all VX and WN, whenever possible. Love the VX experience. WN awards are very useful for my travel patterns and the lack of change fees is great.
If DL really had taken the "best" of both airlines in the merger, they would have had a lock on my business. Now they are competing with UA and price will be a major determinant.
So, to your point, if one of the legacies tried to be significantly different from the others, rather than tacitly cooperating to lower the overall level of benefit, my loyalty is still available. WN gets a lot of my business already and they offer neither of my top two priorities, simply because it's so much easier to work with them.
Last edited by MDtR-Chicago; Mar 24, 2009 at 9:57 pm