ggonzaga

Hello,

2020 is a year with a lot of travel for me and I'm trying to figure out what airline to focus my travel on. I'm currently an AAdvantage Platinum.

I'm based out of Miami so I fly out of MIA for the most part. MIA is an AA hub airport, so I always fly out of the D terminal and my travel is very convenient. I was doing lots of international travel in 2019 so I took advantage of the Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge access at that airport. Recently I got an AMEX Platinum card so I'm using the Centurion Lounge in MIA, which I prefer.

This year I'll be doing mainly domestic travel but very often. I'm flying between Boston and Miami primarily. On Friday, I did my first BOS-MIA flight with AA and was disappointed. Since I was flying internationally for so long, I took Admirals Club access for granted. I was granted access to the Admirals Club in Boston as a mistake and was then embarrassingly kicked out unless I wanted to put $600 on my card immediately for an annual membership. It was almost boarding time so it wasn't a huge deal, but I noticed that that was my only lounge if I were to fly AA. There are no other lounges in that terminal and the other BOS terminals aren't connected, so I'm SOL even with my PP and AMEX.

I'm flying this route with Delta in February and did the Status Match challenge. I was granted 3 months worth of Gold Medallion status with Delta which I can easily keep if I do 2 round trips between BOS-MIA. I haven't flown with Delta in years, but if the experience is decent I might take up the status match challenge.

I'm very loyal to AA and oneworld. I'm on track to being Executive Platinum with AA if I keep flying with them at the frequency that I am. I feel like having OW elite status is something I value especially when flying BA or LATAM for example, but flying Delta would give me SkyClub access in Boston that I wouldn't otherwise have. I don't think I'd get anything else out of SkyTeam elite status other than priority boarding and the lounge access (not sure if I'd be allowed in just for being Gold Medallion or because of my AMEX).

Not sure what to do. Ideally I'd want to maximize my AA elite status while maintaining status with Delta but that won't work forever. Then with that I guess I'll just book the cheapest flight with either, but giving preference to Delta when leaving Boston. Or flying Delta BOS-MIA oneway and MIA-BOS with AA oneway, but I don't know if that's the most convenient/economic way to go. Thoughts?