Originally Posted by
jashah
Thx for the detailed response. I’d say one third of my flying is in Canada, 1/3 USA where I usually fly on AS, and 1/3 Europe/other. I always fly in at least Premium Economy but often J. Currently have Silver status with WS after a reduced year of travel due to COVID.
Status benefits generally compound if you concentrate your travel with an alliance (unless you're flying so much you can achieve top status across more than one). If you're flying AS to/around the US, that's not going to benefit you much regardless of whether you credit to WS or FB.
Whether the benefits are worth the extra cost and hassle you may incur to earn that status is another question, of course.
I’m always torn about AC vs WS. AC usually has more flight options and a better loyalty program but being from the West, I try to support WS
I understand that, being from YYC. But...
and they seem to have better codeshare partners where I fly i.e. AF-KLM probably better than LH and DL better than UA (although I’m usually on AS in the USA). WS also codeshares with EK although I’ve never been to DXB but planning a trip there next year.
I don't get this at all. I'm genuinely curious, in what way do you find WS to have "better" partners? Despite EK being a partner, you can't buy a ticket to DXB on the WS website. The reciprocal earning on WS/DL is pretty crappy in both directions, and anytime you're dealing with WS and partners, marketing carrier and codeshares can be problematic for earning. And you can only access a tiny fraction of the AF/KL network with WS, because they're not part of the SkyTeam TATL JV and so only codeshare a handful of routes.
Don't get me wrong, I massively prefer DL to UA in pretty much every way, and they're moving the partnership forward, (very) little by (very) little, but it's nowhere near the (fairly) seamless experience you get with having status and collecting points with an airline that's a proper member of one of the big alliances.