Originally Posted by
gooselee
But this assumes that many/most people make their paid flight choices based on the potential future redemption value of the RDM they will earn. This simply isn't true.
If you mostly fly DL because they offer the best product, routing, schedule, and price for the O/Ds you need to get to/from, the question you are asking is not what you can get for AA miles, but what you can get for DL miles.
If you fly so much that you have a diversified mileage portfolio across many programs, that gives you additional choice. But I cannot believe that the majority of airline customers are making their purchase decisions based on the mileage programs.
Let's be pragmatic about this... the reality is if you are a FF, you are likely flying for business, and not for leisure. Which makes loyalty secondary to operational requirements (since you are traveling for business after all, and it's likely the company footing the bill). After awhile, you build up enough miles/status that it becomes hard to fly other carriers because the perks are getting more valuable.
That means those who fly AA/UA/DL fly them because it works for them; and unless one is hub-captive, pledging loyalty to a single airline can wane when the redemption/loyalty side of the equation starts to become increasingly marginal.
At some point, you'll want to cash in those miles, and it will be a rude awakening. I know of several friends who went through this exact scenario... flew DL and liked DL... until they tried to take the family on a vacation using points, and started wondering what good were all those miles when it was costing twice as much to redeem as the other airline their coworkers were flying on. They compared notes and said screw it, went for a challenge and went with another carrier.