Mktozd:

I'm Elite 1 on TW out of Boston and can say they're both good and bad. Coast-to-coast they work fine for me because I smoke and I like the idea of an airline that puts the plane down in the middle of the country for my to satisfy my nicotine habit. I can always grab a smoke, even w/tight connections and my experience there has been largely delay-free. OTOH, Lambert-St. Louis Airport has all the ambiance of an old K-Mart and TW has a habit of putting my flights at the furthest-apart gates of the two terminals they use. The Ambassador Club there is nice, if somewhat distant from any gates. Only useful to me on long layovers - I'm usually in and out in 20-30 minutes at most. An Amex Platinum card will get you and a guest in on flight days w/o a membership (NW and Continental, too, I think) so the $300 spent on the Plat card seems a better deal than 3 memberships totalling $800-900.

The planes tend to be new and clean (mostly) and the upgrades are great - even on the MD-80s which is it out of Boston (no more 757s) and I've never been turned down for an upgrade on early mornings westbound (just lucky, I guess) but I can't agree on the crews: some nice people to be sure but as a rule they don't impress: most Boston-based employees need personality transplants as the ones they've got aren't working. Dunno if they aren't happy with the job, the pay, the airline, the Big Dig, whatever - but am struck by just how short/cold/rude you can be to FC passengers. Not just on board - at the ticket counters and in the Boston club, too. I'm treated better at LAX, SFO and JFK.

So, overall, they need improvement but I guess every other airline does too. Food could be better, wish they went more places more often but overall it works for me due mostly to few delays. Try it for a year and let us know.