I just moved to New York from the West Coast, and I'm going to be making a few flights / year on Continental (about 40k miles or so). I currently have a NW account with no special status and a whole bunch of miles. Does it make sense for me to get a Continental Onepass account and start using that next year, or should I just stick with NWA?

Does CO put its own members ahead of NW members for upgrades (once I reach an elite status)? Are there any other advantages to switching?

CO has the most nonstops to the most places from Newark/NYC area of any airline..with train going from Penn.Sta. in NYC right to Newark airport..Its a Legacy Airline with an excellent service reputation..thats why..

The 50% EQM rule will likely be your deciding factor.

CO only awards 50% EQM on cheaper fares on NW/DL/partners. CO awards 50% EQM on its own cheap fares, unless purchased on its website.

So your travel patterns, as well as buying habits will factor into this.

If you buy discounted tickets, and you are able to buy those tickets at CO's website, then there may be an impetus for you to change to the CO program.

If you do not buy discount tickets and/or may not buy tickets at co.com, you likely will be in the same boat, so it's not worth switching.

Now with all that said, if you have status with NW and want to switch, CO will likely not match it, as they are partners. So it would actually be easier for you to switch to a different alliance than to switch to a different carrier within the same alliance. It kind of doesn't make sense, and I wish they would consider external factors (such as moving) into comp requests, but it may be easier for you to switch to AA or someone instead of CO. Go figure.

Fascinating. I didn't know about this rule at all. I don't currently have any elite status on Northwest. I have to book work flights through my company's web travel agent -- generally cheapest fare available -- but I often book personal flights on the airline's website itself.

The one other question your point brings up is whether NWA has the same 50% EQM rule on discount CO flights. If that's the case, then I guess there's no disadvantage to switching to OnePass. On the other hand, if NW (or maybe AirFrance/Delta) does not enforce the 50% rule, there might be an advantage to using that plan instead of CO. Does anyone know this?

Thanks...

NW doesn't enforce the rule for NW flights, regardless of the fare. CO does. NW also only gives 50 % EQMs for cheap CO flights. So I would say stick with NW.