Originally Posted by
GKP67
(1) What is your home airport? SBA)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? L, T, U
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >100K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? SKYMILES PLATINUM - WILL BE DIAMOND IN 3-4 MONTHS
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1)Frequent upgrades on travel, 2)Good award redemption rates & 3) Free lounge access IN THAT ORDER
(6) Which routes do you fly most often?- SBA-MSP TWICE A MONTH. MSP TO PWM ONCE OR TWICE A YEAR. LAX TO BOM ONCE A YEAR (USUALLY ON BUSINESS CLASS USING MILES).
(7) Preferred Airlines - CURRENTLY DELTA. HOWEVER, I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF THAT IS THE BEST OPTION.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? MOSTLY BUSINESS (HOWEVER, IT IS ON MY OWN DIME AS I AM SELF EMPLOYED)
Thank you very much for starting this thread. Any help is deeply appreciated. I am new to this site and not sure if I am doing the right thing.
Gautam
Welcome to FT GKP67!
Every FF program has good and bad.
DL has been known to have very poor award availability in the "low levels".
If you fly 100K largely domestic USA miles, consider UA/CO or AA.
With UA/CO , you get CR-1's (can be used for domestic upgrades); and SWU's (with fare-class restrictions).
With AA, you get those SWU's (or EVIP's as they call it I guess), that have no fare-class restriction.
CO has a non-stop EWR-BOM
AA has non-stop ORD-BOM
(for your annual trips).
As you know, UA/CO is going through a merger. And there are some merger related pains that are happening.
It is reported in these boards that AA EXecPlat gets a very high percentage of domestic upgrades (free). UA 1K also seems to have a high upgrade percentage but not as high as AA EXP.
You will earn 100% mileage on low economy fares on UA/CO or AA, as long as purchased through published means (no opaque priceline fares).
I would say, pick the airline that has the most service to your home airport. That will make your life easy overall.