My problem with DL is that I don't think I have ever, in my entire life, been able to redeem a standard reward. I've redeemed tons of them on CO, AA and NW (and US back when I flew them) but never successful on DL. And the booking engine generally is pretty dreadful. Last I checked, you couldn't even type in "NYC" but had to pick a specific airport.

So that leaves me to my dilemma for a Sunday trip to Europe. I have to connect to E. Europe w/ no nonstops from NY. My choices are AF or AA in J since I want a really, really late flight out of JFK. Miles will be virtually equal (b/c on AF I'll get 150% NW gold/class of service bonus and AA is running a double NW bonus plus 25% gold and 25% class of service). EQM is close -- while AA is doing double EQM, their class of service bonus is points, so you lose the benefit of that whereas NW will give me 50% class of service bonus.

On miles, AA seems the better choice if only because I'd rather my miles on AA than NW/DL (and potential status re-qualify) but the connection schedules work so much better on AF (more choices if I miss a connection).