Originally Posted by
TheBisch
I'm interested in seeing what Delta elites view as their secondary airline program... You know, for those times when Delta isn't an option. I've got a couple of trips coming up where Delta won't be an option. I've often wondered what other airline I should try to keep up my points and/or obtain status with. There's no way my travel would support three programs.
Out of CHA we have Delta, AA, and US Air. I don't consider Allegiant or Vision options. This is FT, so I'm sure we'll have many opinions.....
So if Delta isn't your primary program, who is? Why? If Delta is your primary program, who do you consider to be your secondary?
DL is my domestic carrier of choice (great service to/from LGA/JFK), but these days I use LH Miles & More (*Alliance) for most of my international travel. I find *A schedules and fares to be more convenient and more competitive to particular places where I fly, and I find LH to have good miles accumulation and redemption policies for people who travel often long-haul on premium fares. I can maintain *Gold status with about 4 or 5 international trips per year (and with my Lufthansa *G card, I can get into many *G lounges in the US when traveling domestically on *A carriers).
I used to be a UA Mileage+ member, but one day I looked at my account and realized I had about 140k miles in it and only 7k actual UA miles (rest was OZ and LH).
If you can stand US as your secondary carrier, *A has superior award redemption policies (IME, anyway) and *G status has great lounge access internationally.