Will CO Match New DL Upgrade Policies?
 

*Upgrades on reward tickets for Gold Elite and higher.
*Companion upgrades clear at the 24-hour mark and can be requested at booking.

-Does anyone think CO will match this?

Jan 1, CO starts elite reward upgrades for those with the CO CC.

See this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...-benefits.html

NW had reward upgrades and advance companion on same record at same time as elite member. So this is an improvement for DL (former NW) flyers - but not as good as NW had before.

No I do not see CO matching.

Keep in mind too that award ticket upgrades are treated just like revenue upgrades on Delta now - a Platinum an award clears before a Gold on a B fare. Good news for higher elites (esp. top tier Diamonds), but the news is more muted for Golds and especially Silvers.

Looks to me that if one is a gold or silver elite on DL they can pretty much kiss upgrades goodbye, especially on routes with heavy reward redemption. As someone who doesn't really have a shot at reaching a higher level than gold (not enough Int'l trips), I think that this change will make me more loyal to CO/UA in the future.

But UA allows companion upgrades at the upgrade window. You would think there's an impact there as well, no?

Plus most people at the high tiers save their miles for big international trips in J - and likely do not book domestic coach rewards. They may have a connecting domestic segment - which would be booked in F.

I'm not sure I agree with this generalization. Many FTers do this, but many, many people book EasyPass coach and stuff that we would roll our eyes at.

I agree, I think most of us on FT prefer to use our miles for intl trips and C/J upgrades. Two-thirds of those I work with like using their miles for domestic hops to leisure destinations and Domestic-F upgrades.

As someone who worked at a company with heavy travel (lots of Platinums, GSs, etc.) and just joined the FT community (and quickly thereby learning the true value of FF miles when used effectively), I am certain that channa is correct. Lots of people with tons of miles--including top-level elites-- don't save them for international J/F trips but instead use them on EasyPass domestic awards (even though the value is often less than $0.01/mi when compared to the lowest fare).

No.

I work in a travel heavy co-and have recently heard of people taking vacation from EWR-FLL, EWR-CLT and EWR-ORD on easy pass rewards.

I think some of the reason they used SLeasypass was because they just went to the website, put in 3,4,or5 members, and SLeasypass came up. I asked why they didnt try 1 or 2 at lower rates, and all 3 of my coworkers said "its too much work-who cares"!!!

I guess some people really just use their miles as they have them, and dont worry about redemption values.

this is a great point as this was a change (improvement for top tier medallions) from how it was initially proposed