miro

Hello Flyertalkers

After spending 13 years of my life in ATL it is time to move to "greener" pastures, namely San Francisco Bay area. I've been loyal to DL, used to fly more in the past, less nowadays but I still enjoy a FO status and I just earned FO status for the next year.

The question is: should I stay with DL or switch loyalty to UA?

Here are my travel patters:
- about 3 trips over to Europe each year
- yearly skiing trip to SLC
- occasional business trip (mostly international, could be as far as Sydney); I can choose the airline
- occasional mileage run :-) time and family permitting
- have DL Amex (not needed to earn status but gives these extra MQMs)

I am a fairly tall person (at 6'6", 198 cm), never flew United but heard good things about their E+ seating. DL can feel pretty cramped at times. I am not sure how would I even go about booking an E+ seat there.

DiverDave

Sounds like you may need to try the friendly skies. I believe UA does not offer status matches per se, but rather challenges. You could get a status match to CO, as CO/UA reciprocal benefits are in work.

David

SJC ORD LDR

From SFO itself, UA makes the most sense if you are going to major cities that are not ATL. DL goes to all the hubs, HNL, and NRT from SFO.

From OAK and SJC, UA goes no further than Denver directly these days, so it's not all that great. However, DL does go to MSP, SLC, and a red-eye to ATL from SJC plus AS covers the better Islands (Maui and Big Island) along with flights along the west coast and the direct to AUS.

OAK has decent service from AS, but DL only goes to SLC from there these days.

So, depending where you live and need to go, DL can still work.

mikesairways

OAK-ATL is coming back on DL, not sure of the start date but it will be a 757.

GBadger

SFO/OAK is not bad as a DL flyer.
Flight options include decent service to:
ATL
MSP
DTW
SLC
JFK
LAX
MEM
CVG
SEA (via AS)
PDX (via QX)
HNL
NRT
AMS (via KL)
CDG (via AF)

If flying direct is important to you, go with UA/CO. If using your miles in a constructive and stress-free manner is important to you, go with UA/CO. If you're not going to be PM+, I'd say go with UA/CO (for E+ access). Otherwise, I'd give DL a shot.

Nugget_Oz

OAK - ATL is already back this month.

As for the OP, UA has SFO as a hub and if you are going to have to travel to Sydney it has a direct flight out of SFO. DL your going to have to schlep down to LAX to transfer. At the moment the SFO - LAX connection flights often are T6 whilst DL to Sydney is out of T5. You then of course have the connection issues back. TATL UA has a number of directs along with LH out of SFO whilst with DL your going to have to transfer.

Depending on whether you want the convenience of direct flights out of SFO which is pretty easy to get to from anywhere in the bay area, even by PT, or whether you want to keep the DL loyalty going.

miro

No, seeing my travel patters during the last few years I won't be PM+. I will be flying around 40k BIS miles yearly, occasionally more than 50k.

I travel mostly internationally, so for intra US travel flying direct is not important at all. For direct travel SFO to EU SkyTeam options are limited to KL and AF flying to their respective hubs. UA flies to LON and LH flies to FRA. Anything I missed?

I still have 500k+ skymiles I need to burn and I do feel the pain of redeeming them on DL. Is it easier to redeem miles on UA?

DJMeatBall

Redeeming miles more easily on UAL? YES I just redeemed 50K Mileage Plus miles for two summertime seats to Canada only a few weeks ago.

You already know how easy it is to find award space on Delta for 25K p.p.

As a new SFO based flyer, you really have so many more fine options and airlines to choose from. Now's your chance, go for a status match while you can.

Take it from me as a fellow SFO traveler (having just finished a flight in a cramped middle coach seat with only a DM "SkyPriority" drink chit to console me, followed up by waiting about an hour for luggage to come off one of two luggage belts Delta seems to have consolidated all their operations onto), the new Delta excels at aggravating SFO passengers no end.

UAyoungK

I'm based out of SFO and i have been very happy with my UA experience. With your travel pattern, seems like you can get to 1k with a few mileage runs. I am a 1k and I have been upgraded on 90% of my domestic flights. Have enjoyed my Systemwide Upgrades when flying to Sydney and also used 12.5k miles instead of paying for a $600 one-way flight to Orlando. Another great benefit is star alliance. Although not completely easy to get reward tickets on other airlines, there is an unparrallelled global network with *A.

**Forgot to mention that E+ and the exit rows will be a nice benefit to you.

miro

I guess UA it is. Thanks everyone for your input.

The Mileage Millionaire

Excellent selection. I moved from ATL to SFO 8 years ago, after spending 15 in ATL. I switched most of my business to UA about 3-4 years ago. My only regret is not doing it sooner.