Originally Posted by
M60_to_LGA
Honestly, if much of your travel will be to DC, SF, and Chicago, maybe it makes sense to stick with United? Those three cities are all hubs, and LGA has lots of daily departures for both DC and Chicago. SFO and AUS will require a connection on any airline at LGA. CLT and MIA would be nonstop possibilities on AA, though.
From what I've heard and read on FT, DL has been an utter dumpster fire this year due to staffing-related operational issues.
Maybe you can request a status match and give the different airlines a try? For me personally, LGA has always been a much easier airport to fly in/out of than JFK, even before the reconstruction. While DL's T4 at JFK is quite nice (yay Shake Shack!), I wouldn't go out of my way to choose it over LGA if that meant significantly more travel time. Especially at a time when they're having major reliability and customer-service issues.
Definitely a case of YMMV - I'm a Westchester/Fairfield local and I made the switch to Delta a few years ago because of what a dumpster fire all of my experiences with AA were. I have only had positive experiences with Delta, except one time with a connection in ATL during those computer fires or whatever it was. Almost every AA flight I have taken over the past several years has been extremely delayed and their staff was impossible to deal with. I finally made the switch during their mechanics strike a couple of years ago.
Like the OP, I avoid EWR at all costs. I really don't care if I fly out of JFK or LGA, it's only about 10-15 mins further to JFK. Between the two airports, DL flies to all of the cities mentioned, both airports now have a Centurion Lounge in their terminals (unless you get DL's other terminals at both airports, but they still have SkyClubs), and in my experience their pricing is cheaper than UA and AA. They also operate out of HPN (albeit much more expensive than the JFK/LGA).