Waitlisted

I have never had an issue getting sky priority on KL in Europe on many flights. The only issue is sometimes you need them to add a zero (0) before your number, then it recognizes AS golds as a sky priority customer.

Eastbay1K

A 0 to make it an 8 or a 9 digit number? (There are a lot of 7 digit AS #s out there.)

BearX220

My profile is very similar to yours -- I'm a lapsed UA Plat, 380k RDMs in the tank, can't stand UA any more. I can't possibly argue that you stick with UA for reliable operations, great service, upgrades, or solid irrops recovery -- the whole thing is crumbling before our eyes in slow motion. As for UA MP value, the fall devaluation and PQM factor make AS MP the superior value.

I'm also an AS MVP and moving emphasis over to AS/DL/AA.

Principal strength: usable miles and great AS partner desk to help, plus the new EQM earning options on overseas carriers. Principal weakness: partner flights must be marketed and operated by the partner carrier, so codeshares ineligible.

This is a huge pain when you are shopping for eligible two-flight trips to Europe, Asia, Africa, or ME: out of Seattle such itineraries with a BA, AA, DL, AF or KL factor are usually sold as half or all codeshare. I find myself poking around Cheapoair.com or similar sites looking for two-carrier itins that are "marketed" by the respective operating carriers and do not include one 8000-series flight number, and when I find one it's often at an exorbitant price premium compared to the codeshare deal.

I'm shopping for SEA-DXB in February, the EK nonstop is too expensive, and you can't imagine how hard it is to come up with a two-plane itin that is 100% eligible for AS EQMs. It's hard to find a DL/KL or AA/BA deal that is not sold by one carrier or the other and includes one codeshare flight number.

As for AF... I flew JFK-CDG-LHR in November on an itin booked with Delta. The short leg was on AF metal with a DL codeshare flight number and I obviously never got credit for it. I accept the AS MP rules but find them ridiculous.

leland

Thanks for the comments - I'm well talked into AS. No DL upgrades between SEA & JFK is a killer. At least I can use a Gold Guest to EWR on AS if I really need to do it.

Booked BA to LHR for end of the month, and booking a transcon as well. I'm going to hate riding in the back of the bus, but that's what happens when you go from 1K to nothing. Sad sad day.

That's interesting about the codeshares. I'll have to watch for that, but seems like that and no domestic upgrades (for a SEA low status flyer like me) are what I have to accept to avoid UA and at least be able to work towards a fun redemption or two. I'm already running into that scenario with some domestic codeshares.

ANC RED-EYE

Agree. This has always been a major source of frustration. Both skyteam and oneworld, for whatever reason, always end up with a lot of codeshares in the mix on their best itins. Frustrating because both are partners, but it still won't credit to AS. FWIW, I've found klm.com to be a decent resource for finding better options on skyteam and trying to force them to be coded by operating carrier. Searching by schedule on DL sometimes also yields good results.

AS transcons have a reputation for being quite tough to upgrade. My guess is, finding U space with a guest upgrade cert will not prove to be an easy task either, also remember that the guest upgrades are not valid on G/T fares. Therefore, whenever you're on an upgrade eligible flight AND U space is available, I'd definitely go for it...but I guess I wouldn't count on this being an every transcon sort of benefit.

QuietLion

Delta has better equipment for sure, but they have the worst frequent-flyer program of the majors while Alaska's is better than any of them. Change fee waivers save me thousands of dollars a year, and Delta's F fares are quite reasonable even for the lie-flat transcons so I just buy them and apply the miles to Alaska.

I just lost 60k Delta miles due to the 72-hour rule for awards, and they wouldn't even refund the $10 in taxes. I see no reason to earn any more SkyPesos.

QL

Chugach

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I've had some good luck getting U space on PDX-DCA. The SEA trans cons are tougher though.

BearX220

Thank you for that advice, it's very helpful.

BOB W

Go for it. One less people trying for my UG