Hello,

I am based on Long Island, NY and frequently use JFK and LGA although I live right near Islip for flying. I would say I am at the bottom to mid tier in turns of travel. All of my business travel is domestic with 2/3 of it being in the eastern half of the country. I barely made American platinum this year so I would say I could easily maintain gold and sporadically hit platinum year after year.

I generally prefer first class as I find I can be so much more productive work wise with the real estate, it really has nothing to do with the drinks, meals, etc. More comfort and realistic work space is premium for me.

My primary goal to earning miles is to travel with my family of 5 (for example going to Disney, 5 free tickets on Southwest in a few weeks).

The upgrades to first are nice but most of the time since not guaranteed if it is within 100-200 I’ll just pay for it to ensure I get it.

I currently fly American. But I find that I have to connect on every flight, it seems unless you go to Chicago or Dallas (obviously) there is nothing direct. Flight times are tough too. I read an article you wrote a few years ago how American really does not focus on NY based routes but people flying into NY which I can see being very true.

I am trying to decide if switching over to Delta would be a good move for me. Some observations:

1. Being a less frequently traveler rollover MQM’s seems like a HUGE benefit to me
2. Lack of mileage expiration is a good thing too
3. Upgrades solely on priority is probably beneficial although I am sure I will rarely get them (I earned 4 500 mile upgrades all of last year on American as this was my first year with status so I view them as pretty much worthless)
4. I am very concerned about the mileage value though. Everything I read says Delta’s miles are the most worthless in the industry
5. Giving up my status and 90,000+ miles on American. Of course I would try to use them via free flights so I don’t lose them but I did just earn platinum status for next year
6. Maybe just something I seem to notice but the Delta planes tend to be more recently upgraded and just feel more comfortable

Thoughts? I would just go the jetblue route but I do enjoy the first class room. So the real question is Delta vs American. Again the flight times and connections seem to be the real issue on American.

Thanks so much for the time to respond!