Originally Posted by
Polytonic
I currently do 35-42 segments on SEA-EWR annually (anywhere from 86-100k BIS miles). I am doubling that for the next few years, so one SEA-NYC roundtrip every week (Thu-Sun) which puts me somewhere around 200k BIS miles a year on UA. At my current 271k lifetime miles, I'd hit 1MM in 4 years.
Alternately, I could move some of my (westbound) flights ex-JFK and pick up mid-tier status on another airline, most likely Delta GM based on schedule. This would also cost me a slight premium (probably another $20-30 per segment?).
UA has by far the best schedule and price for me, and (in my opinion) the best lifetime program. As a commuter, how valuable is (pursuing) lifetime status compared to having mid-tier status on a backup carrier?
I don't envy you, I did this for about seven months non-stop, just before the CO/UA merger. Then I hit a wall and needed vacation.
An unusual business opportunity came up and I and a colleague had to be in SEA Mon-Thu just like you. And our company had to have someone on site every Monday morning at 8 am. To ensure this, he chose DL from JFK and I went CO from EWR. We both had family commitments on weekends so this was the only way we could manage it.
Long story short, he made it on time Monday morning 75% of the time in the winter, I made it 100%. DL just did not have the heavy flight schedule out of JFK to offer a lot of options if there was a mechanical or weather and it was a bad winter. Back over at EWR, CO would pull out all the stops and even book me on AS or UA and I always made it to SEA.
DL is a very good airline, but I don't know how easily they will rebook you onto another major carrier if your flight has an issue. Last year they refused to rebook my colleague on AA JFK-LAX for some arcane ticketing reason. And they don't seem to play nice with AS. So flight schedules are something you may want to consider. I don't regret choosing CO at the time even though I was interested in getting more DL miles.
Wish you luck and continued (?) sanity!