I have been with CO since 90’s and am Platinum currently. I like CO's clean airplanes, food service, good first class upgrade and friendly flight attendants.

The problem I have with CO is their LAX schedule. I visit New York often, but for most other destinations I have to connect.

I recently took a Delta flight, and was surprised that DL has many direct flights from LAX (BOS, Oakland and SEA etc). I like DL's LCD monitor display at the terminal. SLC is a good airport to connect (good restaurants and easy connection). I was also surprised Crown Room has improved a lot and am actually better than PC.

I discover DL dumped their infamous policy on LUT tickets. Skymiles has better partners to redeem for me. (DL: 140,000 on CI or SQ F to Asia, CO needs 200,000 on BR)

The question is: should I switch?

Depends on how much of a glutton for punishment you are. Delta is just a miserable airline. I flew them recently as part of an AZ ticket, and they made AZ look like the Ritz of airlines... and that takes a lot!

Until DL upgrades their BusinessElite product, their current domestic and int'l business/first (one class) is WEAK compared to CO's. (Again, that's saying a lot!)

I guess either You didnt check the OPs profile under their handle or You know nothing about CO & LAX.

The OP is LAX based, I highly doubt that the OP will ever get an Upgrade out of LAX, so DL FC is probably alot better then COs Coach.

Id tell the OP to do a search on the DL forum to see what Upgrading out of LA is like, if its any better then CO

I too love Continental's product, but the reduced EQM for mileage earned toward NW Worldperks have made me book away from Continental. First class upgrade is great, but the bottom line for me is cheap tickets. Where I previously flown 50% of my Platinum flying on Continental, now it's on Delta. I wish Continental came back to the 100% EQM club....

Jiburi

My partner flies LAX to NYC once every few weeks. He is Platinum on Delta and gets upgraded almost every flight. In the 2 years I have been flying EWR to LAX on Continental, I was only upgraded once in about 30 segments of flying. I am switching to Delta myself.

Outside of seat width, how is BE weak compared to CO?

The EQM thing is absolute garbage. I think it such a petty and anti-customer policy that it colors my entire perception of CO negatively.

I'm considering the switch to DL or NW myself, but neither the wife nor I are eager to give up the elite bonuses. I'm sort of hoping we don't requal so that we can just switch and get it over with. Unless... anyone has had success getting a match from DL or NW, from CO or AS or BA????

FWIW, I have flown DL coach internationally recently and I thought it better than CO by quite a bit. Decent room, good IFE, decent food, good service, bright, clean plane, not a 757... The front of the bus sure looked nice, so I am unsure, as well, what exactly makes it worse than CO. Having also flown AZ, I can definitively say that DL is significantly better than AZ in every regard.

I agree. I think they're comparable. DL has MUCH better wine.

Yeah, it's just dumb to give higher fares more miles. Cheap coach certainly SHOULD get the same benefits!

Not sure about why you think the CRC is better than the PC. PC's have wireless internet, which by itself, makes the PC better to me.

Since I use Verizon card, wifi is not as important. My observation of CRC v.s. PC is :
1. LAX CRC is bigger than LAX PC with more bathrooms.
2. Free shoe shine at some CRC (SLC).
3. Better wine at CRC. LAX PC serves two bucks chuck. It's pretty sad. CRC also serves Mojitos, not at PC.
4. Better snacks. CRC serves premium nut mix and they change their snacks through out the day.
5. CRC has a quite area with no cell phones allowed. ^

IMO, while most of the CRC's are of decent quality, CO Pres Clubs clearly are superior (for the most part).

Food is better on CO (IME), but at least DL has dedicated BE lounges at ATL, CVG, and JFK. I wish CO would add dedicated BusinessFirst lounges at EWR and IAH (or dedicate sections of existing lounges to BF customers), but, obviously, CO does not see the need. In addition, seat width is really only an issue on DL's 767's (BE seats with a mere 18.5" of pitch).

Um... SEAT WIDTH.

I confess, I've only flown internationally on their 763.

Dedicated lounges or no dedicated lounges, until DL cleans-up their facility at JFK (again, I know it's 'pending'), I'd rather be in a President's Club at EWR over dealing with T2/3 at JFK ANY day.

No, I read it.

Bottom line is that I'd rather be on CO in Y than deal with the entire curb to curb experience of DL! Plus, in the 50% chance you don't get that UG on DL... uh... have you FLOWN DL's Y???

That said, it will be interesting to see how much meat there really is behind DL's new branding... if they can deliver on all their new talk, DL may end up becoming a VERY different airline. I'm keeping an open mind.