As many know from previous posts this year I will be short status on CO. However, next year I already have a V fare on AF to AGP, a CO F EWR-FCO, and a EWR-LAS also on CO K fare. This is just my leisure plans thus far. The issue is that CO doesn't accept 100%, only 50% on AF V fares but SkyMiles does the whole 100%. That alone is a difference of 5K. Plus SkyMiles will count 100% of my CO travel towards medallion. I am considering logging my miles on DL next year. Those 3 flights alone will be about 27K. Then do a status match on CO for Silver. And work towards gold on OP. The 27K makes no differnce to me. I have well over 100K in my OP account. I'll make that up with the shopping and CC partners plus promos over the year. What do you experts think. By the way, my business travel will be cut nearly 2/3 next year. So even though 5K is just a transcon, I can't count on it. Don't forget, I do mostly the EWR-RIC on the ERJ...

Delta status id fine if you fly them. Otherwise it gets you very little on CO and they will not match your status as partners don't do that. This is discussed in detail in the status match forum.

And of course, DL FC service is garbage.

Are you sure? There have been dozens of posts in which an ft was asked to fax his card OP and they matched status. In fact there was one like two days ago on the boards. I don't care about their FC...I'm not going to fly them. Just log the miles in SkyTeam...

Ditto that and so is their Transcon service and equipment. Neither CO or DL are true first class products ,but CO wins hands downover Delta. Better buis product over the pond for me is Virgin Upper Class Suite or BA, however flying out of IAH it makes more sense for me to bank my miles and butt on CO metal and keep my PLat status as long as I can

Your whole idea doesn't make much sense to me if I understand it correctly. What I think you want to do is credit your 27K of flights in early 2006 to DL, earn DL silver, then ask for a status match to CO and go on to earn CO Gold in 2006.

First, as already mentioned, CO is highly unlikely to offer you a match for DL status because they are an ST partner (it's easy to get a match with (earned the hard way) AA or UA status, because these airlines are not part of Skyteam).

Second, even if you do get a match to CO Silver status, you would get just the status (probably until Feb 2007 if you ask for the match early next year). You wouldn't start off with 27K EQM. So if you actually want to work towards CO Gold, you'd still have 50K EQM to go. On the other hand, if you just credit CO directly you'd have nearly 22K EQM in your CO account, with only 28K to go to get to Gold. If you're planning to apply for a match later in the year, then you might get status until all of 2007, which would be worth something (not much: this is CO Silver status we're talking about).

Last, if you fly the ERJ then how much is status really worth to you anyway? Why worry?

As per my thread my ERJ travel will literally go to nilll in 2006. And thank you for answering my question. Though, since co is so strict with eqm's on other carriers and delta is so liberal I think the idea may make some sense. If my business travel is almost nothing next year I might as well let someone reward me for flying 27K. Though continental would only credit me for about 20 of it while delta with give me md and 27K.

You might consider NW as well since you can get 100% EQM's from DL.

And as a NW elite, you can qualify for free upgrades on both NW and CO. As a DL elite flying CO or NW, you can not get upgrades based on elite status.

DL elite is really only beneficial if you are flying DL. If you want to get around the 50% EQM rule and you're flying CO, consider going for elite on NW.

Don't forget, too, that if NW has an F section, it has a minimum of 16 F seats. That actually makes for upgrades reasonably often on the lower FF tiers, unless you're flying popular routes at popular times. Translation: Popular routes can be upgraded on the lower tiers if you fly them at "off-peak" times.

Agreed that CO is far superior to DL. Check out the DL forum to glipse the shenanigans that DL is pulling as they go into bankruptcy. I've been Plat at DL since current program inception. But for the coming year(s) it looks like the only way I'll be flying them is for free - got to use up 3M+ miles (though OTOH the way they're devaluing their miles and their program, it may take everything to get a single free trip from them.) Very unsavory goings-on at DL. Be careful before making a switch.

Awesome idea! I completly forgot about that!

I have NW's Worldperks myself. Love the program, and NW's international service on A330's. I'd sure think long & hard before going to DL!

I am stuck with DL, as I am halfway to MM on them. Does anybody know if there is any talk of CO and DL becoming REAL partners with 100% MQM / EQM regardless of carrier flown? NW plays nicely with both CO & DL; is there any reason why CO & DL refuse to play nicely with each other?

I guess I'm a little confused about how nicely NW and DL really play beyond the 100% EQM area. NW and CO have a real upgrade reciprocity program - DL doesn't do that for CO or NW. Same thing with CRC access - no DL boarding pass - no access to the CRC whereas NW and CO are fully reciprocal. I'm in my transition from CO to NW and have noticed no extra fortune on DL at all (and I avoid them for the most part - they are an airline of last resort to me).