gigglesbugg

I'm based out of SEA and with the new DL route announcements I'm seriously considering switching. I've been with AS for many years and I really do love the service and the mileage program. BUT with HKG a frequent destination as well as not being able to get skypriority on KLM, AF and other partners I feel like I'm a little limited on AS.

Anyone want to talk me out of it??

ANC RED-EYE

I've been doing a lot of flying as MVPG on DL for the past 3 years or so. Honestly, I like DL's service - DL F I prefer to AS F. As MVPG, I feel like I get reasonable benefits on DL with SkyPriority, extra baggage, upgrades, etc. I haven't flown AF/KL in years; I did fly Alitalia once recently, but otherwise no other skyteam, so not exactly your situation.

In any case, three major factors have kept me at AS: I'm based in ANC, the change fee waiver, skypesos. Guess I won't try to talk you out of anything, I'll just let you know what's talked me out of it.

LwoodY2K

All my domestic flying is paid while all my international has been awards. With that pattern, AS has been great since I effectively have the combined AS/AA/DL route network for all my travel.
For your situation where you are actually using international benefits of having DL status I don't think it's clear cut. My best recommendation for you is to go through the benefits of each, assign values to them, and see which program you get more value total.
There's also the question of your spend vs. elite level or if you have the DL credit card - if you're flying 100k miles but spending $3k and don't have the DL card I think AS is probably still better.

wrightTheta

With DL (soon to be) the only game in town for SEA-HKG N/S, that seems to be a limiting factor.

gigglesbugg

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I'm going to take the plunge. It's actually making me sad to say goodbye to AS and I am going to miss the upgrades. AS has been upgrading me 80% of the time whereas I know DL tends to be stingy in that area. But at least I'll have a chance when I'm on my DL intl routes now.

I do have the DL credit card and I just did a comp on award travel for both airlines with the same dates to a domestic and international destination and DL actually came out just a smidgen cheaper. Could be a fluke, or AS miles are loosing their value.

FCYTravis

Until DL announces service to Ketchikan... I'm stuck. AS has all the YCA city-pair contract fares anyway

evergrn

I'm also SEA-based, and I'm faced with the same question as the OP. I've asked a somewhat similar question elsewhere on the board. I got mixed advices, and so far I'm choosing to credit all the miles from AS/AA/DL to AS (even though I flew DL>>AS>AA last year).

Even though the OP has made his/her choice, I'd like to continue to read more people's input on this. I'm sticking with AS for now, but I'm still on the fence about AS vs DL miles.

davew-krdm

I did the reverse and came back to AS from DL. I have been a Platinum on DL for the past 2 years, prior to that a 75K or Gold for 5 years prior on AS.

The steady erosion of SkyMiles, which never had good redemption rates to begin with, plus the addition of MQDs, plus a variety of monetization schemes and cutbacks (far more than the AS "South of Expected" wave of a couple of years ago) weighed in the decision. But the single biggest factor was the waived change fee for AS Golds. Have you seen the ridiculous SDC policies at DL that were recently enacted?

Like others I do prefer the DL BE product to AS F. But with the move to "want F, pay for F" at DL, I was upgrading less and less. I'm guessing that y'all know that SEA-JFK is not even eligible for upgrades at all any more on DL.

So, I'm back. I'll likely fly DL a few times this year - still PM until 2/2015. But most of my business is going to AS, including already booked trips to BOS.

Dave

davew-krdm

Just one more comment here -

There are no International upgrades on DL, really, unless you "pay" for them, and then only if you are booked in M class or higher. You'll need either mileage and the appropriate class of ticket (and Z class availability), or a new global upgrade certificate which are only provided to Platinum or Diamond members. On several trips to Brazil last year I was only able to upgrade one segment to Business Elite (out of 8 flights), and even that would not be possible in 2014 with the added restrictions.

If you can fly enough to reach Platinum, or even better Diamond, you'll have the ability to upgrade using the above methods - but that's really theoretical on many routes.

Dave

ANC RED-EYE

I did not know this. Why this route only, or is it more routes? Can you provide more details or a reference?

davew-krdm

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...-upgrades.html

"We are pleased to announce that beginning March 1, 2014, Medallion Complimentary Upgrades will be available on flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, or Seattle. But in light of significant investments in our coast-to-coast BusinessElite® experience, which include premium amenities like fully flat-bed seats, Westin Heavenly® In-Flight Bedding, on-demand entertainment, and premium dining, we will no longer offer Medallion Complimentary Upgrades on flights between New York-JFK and Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle beginning March 1, 2014."

gigglesbugg

Interesting. I think 75k is very doable for me. Never tried very hard on AS, but I was only 5k short last year. And I do lose a lot of miles on AF and China Airlines, etc. Big deciding factor right here. I would keep AS if it weren't for this, plus the fact that I fly a lot more miles and segments on DL. I hardly ever travel domestically for work.

missydarlin

Why are you losing miles on AF?

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Oh its just the joy of DL

Glad they'll allow upgrades to/from Hawaii but cutting our unlikely shot at a transcon is well...

golfingboy

For selfish reasons, if cutting upgrades on this route means we will be able to book in the J cabin on DL for these three routes [particularly for trips in conjuction with an intl BE award] using AS miles then I would consider this a win.

I am dreaming I know.