Originally Posted by
pbarnette
I don't find The Points Guy to be a particular expert. Moreover, I think his focus is entirely upon mileage earning, which is fine, but such an outlook likely differs significantly from that of ordinary business travelers, who do not make a living out of mileage programs.
My take is that DL remains the undisputed best airline for virtually all business travelers in ATL, DTW, MSP, and SLC. They are among the most competitive for business travelers in NYC, SEA, and to a lesser extent LA. They are very competitive for most business travelers in non-hub airports in the Midwest, Southeast, Mountain West, and some Northeast markets. They are much less competitive for most business travelers in Texas and much of the Southwest.
As an "ordinary business traveler" out of DTW, I disagree on some of your points. Delta has the best offerings and most direct flights, but I also do care about mileage earning because it is one of the few benefits I get from sacrificing my personal life at home to travel for work.
Delta' frequent flier program is part of the reputation and offerings as an airline, so I disagree that after severely devaluing their program and opening the door for further negative changes that they are still the best airline. Most convenient airline perhaps.
I fly to LAX every week right now and it would actually be cheaper for me to choose a non-direct flight from AA. I chose DL because of my loyalty to them and can justify it because it is direct and gets me to the client site faster. But take away that loyalty and my option becomes the cheaper flight that gives me more rewards or the more expensive flight that gets me to work faster. Not as big of a clear choice as you may think.