Interestingly, I am thinking about moving to AA. I have been a Diamond for the past several years, and here is some overviews of Delta's strengths and Weaknesses.


Strengths

* Great service by Diamond reservation line and even better service by those who respond to written compliments and complaints. Issues are responded to within days, and Delta often awards extra miles to compensate for service issues.

* The miles are horrible to get award tickets, but I find them extremely useful for booking great hotels. Have probably spent 30 nights in great hotels using miles, booking on the Skymiles Marketplace.

* The lay-flat seats -- while not very wide -- really are excellent for long haul flights.

* While the service varies wildly, generally the FA's are quite good, and sometimes amazing.

* The Sky Clubs are comfortable, the drinks are free, and the snacks are enjoyable.

* The Sky Club at LHR -- with delicious food, ample space, cool design, makes traveling out of LHR worth the effort.

* In flight entertainment on long-haul flights is great -- somewhat less robust on shorter flights.

* The food, while not stellar, is acceptable.

* Many, many Delta employees go the second mile to help you, and I have been upgraded, helped and well-service by dozens of incredible staff through the years. The excellent staff outnumber the duds by 10:1.

Negative

* The System Wide Upgrades are next to useless. You must use a wildly expensive M fare for their use.

* Domestic upgrades, at least on the routes I fly, are disappearing. My last flight, PDX - JFK, I couldn't even use a system-wide upgrade for a domestic upgrade.

* Many planes are old, only marginally cleaned between flights, with old, smelly bathrooms.

* The Skyteam network is really limited, and some partners -- including Korean -- only seem slightly connected. It's impossible, for example, to fly from Europe to Australia entirely on a Skyteam carrier.

* You are forced to watch a self-serving, "informational" by Delta's president before every flight.

* Older planes contribute to less-than-stellar service. On one flight from VLC to JFK we had to make an emergency landing in the Azores. On the very next flight, the flight was delayed by 19 hours.

Hope this helps.