Originally Posted by bhomburg

Yes, no lounge access for Flying Club Silver status. You'd need to be Gold for that.
You can only achieve Gold status in Flying Club on eight annual TATL flights if you buy more expensive fares and fly Premium Economy on at last one trip. Discount economy earns 25 TP on each Virgin-operated transatlantic leg, plus 5 or 10 on the Delta-operated connecting flight, that's a minimum of 60 per return flight. Eight flights will net you only 480 tier points, not even halfway enough for Gold status.
If you're buying more expensive fares that'll earn 50 TP per TATL leg, you'll earn 120 TP per flight - still leaving you 40 TP short after eight flights.
See the tier point earning charts here: https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/g...ip-tiers.html#

Then there is the extra legroom seating on Delta:
Unlike AA where MCE is technically part of the Economy cabin and mid-tier and above status holders get seats there for free at booking, Delta treats their "comfort plus" seating as a separate cabin and status holders need to request upgrades in order to sit there for free. Those upgrade requests are processed at the gate prior to departure, and nothing is guaranteed. Also, the cheapest booking classes do not qualify.
Flying Club Gold members receive complimentary access to DL Comfort+ (based upon availability and eligibility of booking class^) at the gate prior to departure for all regions of travel

Looks like staying with Oneworld seems the smarter thing to do in your situation

Originally Posted by guv1976

Assuming that you're able to maintain oneworld Sapphire with either AA or BA, the question then becomes which program's miles are more advantageous to you, given your anticipated redemptions. Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to redemptions. BA is very good for European travel with its RFS redemptions, as well as reduced-rate redemptions for long-haul travel during off-peak times. AA, on the other hand, does not charge extra for necessary connections, and does not collect carrier surcharges, except when redeeming for travel on BA or IB.