Delta to Continental
 

Last year, after the merger of NWA with Delta, I got bit annoyed with Delta over a few incidences. I contacted Continental to match my Delta platinum status and they obliged. At the end of 2009, I achieved Diamond status with Delta. However, I am still unsure if post-NWA Delta is the right airlines for me. I heard a bunch of loyal NWA frequent flyers moved to Continental. What you guys see better at Continental vs Delta?

I live in Hawaii. For most of the time, you will be asked to pay double miles (or even more) to get an award ticket with Delta. United is better and the best seems to be aa.com. I have not tried Continental. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

I think the AA top tier program is better than UA or CO. But living in Hawaii, you may want access to UA's network, which is quite substantial.

UA gives UDU on Hawaii routes. CO gives EUA on non-BF Hawaii routes (i.e., anything except IAH/EWR).

With UA's CR1s and SWUs, you may want to consider that program. Being in Hawaii, you can really really leverage the CR1s on some long-distance trips. If you get 8 x CR1's a year and use them for East Coast domestic trips (e.g., HNL-LAX-JFK), that's some 40,000 miles of upgraded flying all pre-confirmed in advance. And that's before touching the SWUs.

Same with the SWUs -- if your travel is to Europe, that's some significant distance as well.

It would be theoretically possible to upgrade all your 100K miles of travel per year in advance with confirmed upgrade instruments on the UA program.

I cannot compare, since I've never been elite at DL or NWA; but I loved the complementary upgrades on NWA while partner with CO (scored 100% upgrade with NWA a few years ago, though probably not the same right now).

I'm elite on CO and it really suck their current flight availability from mainland to Hawaii (three daily flights from LA area, one from EWR and two or three from IAH). The only upgradeable flights are the three from the west coast. However, with the recent agreement with UA, their code-shared flight schedule availability is much better, plus access to E+ on UA flights is better than CO E-. Overall, I think UA elite is probably better than CO elite if living in Hawaii, too bad I cannot status match from CO elite to UA elite.

CO is a professional, generally well-run operation. It respects its own program rules for the most part and you'll get good value from them.

As OP PE, last year's ug rate was 85% on eligible sectors. Not as good as with NW, obviously, but better than some DL apologists would have you believe.

As channa will tell you, Elite CS is very variable. There isn't what I would term a strong willingness to help, although the T&C mostly work in our favor with awards, for example. There isn't that amazing take ownership of the customer's problem and fix it, with no ifs, ands or buts, that we got from the NW Plat line CSRs.

Any RJ flying and hard Y cabin seating is worth it when you come to book those family vacation awards. I've just redeemed in J for FCO, peak season - the kind of thing I had to do a year ahead with NW and that just can't be done on DL at stated award levels. This time, just three months out, at LOW levels. Star is a strong network that offers real integration.

I flew 62,000 BIS on Star last month, most of it on CO. I felt that I got good value for every mile flown and I will enjoy the value of the OP program currency accumulated. To me, that's a good deal.

And I just hate dealing with DL SMS about anything. They find ways to obfuscate, deny the requests, increase the mileage required, levy more fees and generally impede and annoy me. It's rare that I feel I've had a satisfactory conversation with them and that they've delivered on their own T&C.

I made the move in January and could not be happier. Over 20 segments and all but 2 were in first class. Have UA as a partner makes sure I never have to worry about getting to any destination.

I made the move directly from NW. I had already experienced all I wanted of DL previously. CO has proven to be a great choice.

I was delta elite at different levels for several years; grew unhappy every year but did not have the will or energy to leave them and change my flying pattern; one day at check-in one of the attendants told me: "you cannot change your flight, not with the price YOU paid for this ticket"; she was right; I knew the price I paid but she did not have to be such a b...h; that was my last flight with DL; CO is absolutely great when all works well; they are good when you are in trouble or need help; and they are iffy when there are major disruptions across the system. The inflight team is much better at CO than at DL;
I have to say that I really miss KLM (SFO-AMS) and AF (SFO-CDG) from all the skyteam benefits.

Why bother? You have Lufthansa SFO-FRA/MUC and Swiss SFO-ZRH =)

I like Amsterdam and Paris and use it as my entry point to Europe so I miss the non-stop flights; as far as i know there is no non-stop SFO-ZRH;
I guess LH non-stop to FRA is ok for connecting flights.

Starts this summer.

Although as a former NW flyer I hate almost all aspects of DL, one thing I do appreciate is that if you fly a DL-coded flight, you'll earn miles as if it is DL metal.

Flying SFO-ZRH on LX? Good luck getting either MP or OP miles.

I have to admit that you have identified the one huge drawback of *A. If I am flying a CO coded flight, I expect CO rules to apply on milage, but *A does not work that way. The solutions are to look for CO or UA or US metal or to pay a bit for more a higher fare class on LH. I do like the LH hard product. One would hope that maybe *A might some day change this highly annoying provision.

Even so, that provision is proportionately much less annoying than DL's crappy 3-tier award chart and the inability to get reasonable award tickets.

I also do not like FRA as either an airport or a city. Paris and Amsterdam were fun places for a stopover. Not so Frankfurt, which was bombed into oblivion in WWII and rebuilt largely in a bland modern style with little character. One travel guidebook described it as ''the most un-German German city''. However, there is also MUC, which is a fine airport and a great city. Zurich and Vienna are also great *A gateways with good airports and great cities. If I have to do a stopover at FRA, I take the ICE train a bit under 20 minutes from the airport to the neat medieval town of Limburg on the Lahn, which is a much more pleasant place to overnight than Frankfurt.

thanks for the information; that would be nice; I have not been to Zurich in a long time but I know that ZRH - the airport - is very nice and easy to navigate airport with great train connections to the city if you happen to have a longer layover.

Look at the fare classes that earn miles. You will find OP quite generous, you have the ability to earm miles + eqm on LH and LX metal, which has numerious connections from LAX/SFO. As well as Air New Zealand (which is nice) , flies LAX-LHR , in addtion to UA.

Compare this to trAASh, which restricts the ability for you to earn miles on BA or redeem translatantic rewards. This is the biggest drawback.

AA is great for people who like to fly aging planes and redeem limited awards. I'll take my seat on LX F. Thanks.

I'm a DL refugee. I'm very happy with the switch. My miles are clearly worth more. I get much better service so far out of CO than DL. My bags are always in the first 10 off the plane and almost always in the first 5 on both CO and UA.

About the only thing I'm not entirely thrilled about is service to MSP on CO being only E145s to IAH/CLE/EWR, which are all quite a bit of a haul for non-F flying. So I do a lot of my flying on UA out of EAU. I may switch to UA instead of CO since CO doesn't codeshare on the EAU-ORD route; but I've so far found the redemption on CO to be better internationally and I'll get unlimited E+ access on UA soon (as a practical matter, I have it now - have not found a GA yet who won't stick me in E+ on UA when I ask.)

Oh, and the website works.

The only way I'd recommend staying at DL is if you really, really, really value domestic upgrades. That's the one plus DL has over CO. (I suppose depending on geography DL may offer a better lounge product if you fly to a lot of places without CO lounges that have DL lounges.)