ssullivan

They HAD to leave because DL never really played nicely with CO in SkyTeam, to the point that DL was shutting CO out of the revenue sharing agreement for international travel that DL and several other major SkyTeam airlines were seeking. CO was always a somewhat unwilling member of SkyTeam, mainly there because NW was pulled in by KLM and because of the pre-SkyTeam close partnership between NW and CO. My experience of flying DL as a CO elite was always fairly negative; unlike the NW/CO partnership where elite recognition and benefits were seemless, it took several years of CO in SkyTeam before I could get a DL boarding pass that accurately recognized my status, and trying to get the preferred seating on DL that DL said I was entitled to was always a pain. It wasn't even until late 2007/early 2008 that I could input my CO OnePass number on a DL reservation using DL.com before the online check-in period opened. DL never seemed thrilled to have CO as a partner, tended to work against CO in many ways, and that's a lot of the reason CO wanted out. The DL/NW merger is what made it possible, especially since NW was the major reason CO was in SkyTeam to begin with.

Personally, as a CO and UA elite, I'm much happier with CO's defection to Star. On a worldwide basis it's a much better alliance, and despite the fact I live in Atlanta now, it has been very rare that I've felt like I needed to fly DL to get where I needed to go, on a schedule that was convenient, and at a reasonable price. I think a lot of other CO elites, and even quite a few former NW elites, feel the same way about DL these days.