DL offers this too. CO offers one additional class of service (S, right?). I don't find the difference between the CO and DL to be significant, though it might be for a very small sub-set of flyers.

Well, CO partisans may not really "know" (I'm amazed at the CO FFers holding out hope for elite bonuses on *A metal), but they will have nobody but themselves to blame when they get the details. I would assume that the upgrade chart will look largely like this:

http://www.miles-and-more.com/cdauti...dia_682812.pdf

I applaud the *A efforts to come up with alliance-wide benefits, but let us be honest about the fact that those efforts have largely led to restrictive earning and redemption rules. There is no reason to believe that CO - the most restrictive US ST program - will suddenly set the bar in *A.