As a Hawaii-based NW elite, I got a small number of upgrade certs good for flights to the mainland each year; that seems to be going away with DL.
And as a NW elite, I could upgrade from any fare class with SWUs; we all know about DL only allowing upgrades from higher fares.
On the flip side, I have a lifetime WC membership, which
should be becoming a lifetime SC membership, and having made plat the last four years (and I figure I'll either be plat again or diamond this year), I do feel like they take reasonable care of me, give me op-ups when they need to, and so on.
If DL redefines "lifetime" or gets even more stingy,
and another alliance comes up with a good routing HNL-EBB (or better still, adds direct flights from ITO to a west-coast hub at reasonable prices), I'd have to reconsider. But for 2010, at least, it doesn't look like DL will succeed in driving me away.
