Originally Posted by OnTimePlease

Just investigating options here but I thank anyone who is willing to help me.

(1) What is your home airport? ABQ
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y/B/M on TATL but SLUT Domestic
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 85K in 2011 and estimating 140K easy in 2012
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? DL PM
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Frequent upgrades on travel, status matching, EU and South Africa daily schedules, good TATL prem econ & Bus class experience.

One big issue I keep fighting is the poor partnership between AF/KLM/DL in the SkyTeam Alliance. Specifically, AF/KLM do not want to honor your status on their metal, keep trying to force you to pay for Econ + upgrades, will bump you from seats for their own elites, poor IT system integration etc.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often Coast to Coast US, 3-5 EU (and increasing), South Africa 1-2x, Japan maybe 3x in 2012

(7) Preferred Airlines: Using DL but that is the point of this post. Am I better off looking at another system?

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work 98%, Can choose Airline, Alliance, and Fare for me and my firms' travel department.

(9) I would really prefer newer equipment and good maintenance over lowest cost carriers.

(10) As my handle might suggest, schedule is important. Often status can mitigate many IROP delays but an always late airline is not desired.

(11) I really appreciate customer service. Yes, sometimes I have to suck it up and fly AngryRus but I would like a smile at 5 AM and perhaps some assistance during IROP situations without feeling like I'm the cause of everything going wrong for the Airline that day.