Originally Posted by
rcurry01
Here is my situation. I started a new job in September and began traveling a lot for work, mainly between the Boston and Salt Lake City. I currently have over $6,000 MQD and just hit 25,000 MQM. Delta recognized my new travel pattern and without asking threw me a little love with Complimentary Gold. I needed to fly two round trips in two months to retain the status… done.
I have had the status for 3 round trips now and I just keep asking myself what is the point. I book my tickets no more than two weeks in advance. I fly on Mon/Fri, so I have never been less than #20 on the upgrade list. I end up in a middle seat 50% of the time. I got an economy comfort seat once. My company has a deal with Delta and I already had access to the “premium” seats. I don’t check luggage. I wasn’t there right when “priority access” started boarding one time and had to gate check my bag, adding time on the other end.
What is the point with sticking it out for Platinum next year, for few domestic upgrade certs, when all these people with Amex cards who spend ½ of what I do on a few cheap TPAC flights are Diamond.
At least the planes are clean and the flights are on time. That is more than I got from UA or AA.
I am seriously considering switching to Southwest from MHT. The connection only adds 1 or 1.5 hours each way, and I won’t be stuck in traffic all the way home on Friday. Plus I won’t be stuck in a middle seat every time. Chicago in the winter can be a bear though.
I'm a little bit confused here. You say you mainly travel between Boston and Salt Lake, but you're considering switching to Southwest? If you're traveling for work, so the money isn't coming out of your own pocket, it seems odd that you would rather connect on Southwest than fly the Delta nonstop. It seems like you're setting yourself up for a lot of Friday nights stranded at MDW.
For the rest, there aren't a huge number of DMs in Boston, though you're certainly right that peak business travel times such as Monday morning will always be tough upgrades to get. Still, you'll get a lot more upgrades flying out of Boston than you will out of ATL or MSP. Also, you say that you get stuck in middle seats typically. Do you pick from the seat map at the time of purchase? I was a GM for my first year and a half in Boston, and I would usually book two to three weeks out, and even on Monday morning BOS-->ATL, which is always a full flight, I could always snag at least a window or aisle (you won't be able to pick C+ at the time of booking as a GM, but you should almost never end up stuck in a regular economy middle seat, and you should be able to get a decent amount of C+ upgrades at the 72 hour window).
As for whether or not you should switch, it's tough to say. Depends on what you value in a program. You'll earn more free flights on Southwest, and the companion ticket can be a big saver. I personally prefer Delta because I find the IROPS handling to be first rate, and I've always had great experiences with the staff. Also, I enjoy traveling internationally for fun, and Southwest has very limited international options, as they aren't in a major alliance. If you're looking at nonstop service from Boston, Southwest has 13 year round nonstop destinations and two seasonal destinations from Logan. Delta has 20 year round (19 if you combine JFK and LGA) plus seven seasonal options. I guess Southwest has slightly better options if you fly to the midwest all the time, but otherwise Delta has more attractive destinations, imo.
Also I think you're underestimating how easy it is to get DM. The normal plat Amex gives 20k MQMs a year, so to hit DM, someone would still need to fly 105k miles, which is a decent chunk. Flying to major hubs during business hours is when you'll spot the most DMs, but I am upgraded on most of my non-peak segments out of Boston, even going back to when I was gold.