I'm thinking of trading for Delta Gold Medallion Status on the coupon connection. I have no status on any airline at the moment, but I have scheduled over 50,000 miles next year. About 35,000 on KLM, 10,000 on NWA, and 5,000 on DL. I was originally planing to just gain status as I went along, but now I'm thinking I might just put all my NWA/KLM activity on DL and gain the bonus mileage sooner.

Here are my concerns:

Until 25K, I would gain 100% more, so 25K extra, plus 12.5K until I hit 50K at which point there will be no more bonuses.

1) So I would get 37.5K, by virtue of the status gift, but... my understanding is that Delta is pretty horrible to redeem miles on... which would devalue the 37.5K, plus make it less valueable in trades (which I do all the time in CC).

2) Delta/NWA do not uprgade others' elites correct? What about Delta/KLM? My NWA activity is going to be almost exclusive before I get status anyway. Would it matter that I had DL status instead of NWA status on KLM? From what I've read it doesn't seem to do you any good on KLM to have status with NWA anyway because there are no upgrades on transatlantics or transpacs.

3) The main reason for me to have NWA this year is because I will be flying KLM almost exclusively this year. Future years, when I return from abroad I will likely not be flying NWA as much from BOS/BDL/NYC.

So should I try to gain elite status on NWA? Or just go with Delta? It's probably better in general to get status with your airline but...maybe in my case not so much. What would be the benefits for me seeing as I would be traveling NYC-AMS-ARN and ARN-AMS-NYC 80% of the time? I just don't know the pros and cons and was hoping fro some advice from the NWA pros. Thanks guys!

You can't gift NWA status correct? Because that would be the easiest solution.

PS - What is the value of Gold Medallion status? I dont know if I'm offering too much or too little.