Hawkeyefan

Our home airport is MSP, and our family has been with Skymiles for many years. We don't do many trips, maybe 3-4 a year, but it still has been enough to give us a few free economy RT tickets over the years (combined with partner earning and e-Rewards redemptions, etc).

With the recent change in Skymiles program and devaluation, I am now wondering if there is a better airline FF program that might suit us. We travel almost exclusively domestic economy. Will probably score half as many miles on these routes as we used to, as of 2015. In addition, can no longer redeem e-Rewards for Skymiles (used to rack em up pretty good that way).

With a base of MSP, wondering if we should switch to Southwest, since it has a growing market share in MSP? Any other thoughts?

jdrtravel

Southwest also awards based on spend, not distance travelled, so I'm not sure you will do much better. Sun Country is a great airline but with a very limited network and no partners that I am aware of. Delta or Southwest are good options for domestic travel, and I would consider getting the credit card of the one you use most to help boost your mileage earn.

kss5555

From a pure mileage redemption, United is hands down the best at actually finding availability. They also allow you to redeem E-Miles and E-Rewards in 500 mile increments, and you can always top off your account with a few surveys via Opinion Miles.

For example, while I fly mostly Delta, all my credit card spend and online shopping and other mileage accruals via dining, etc go to United as I can actually use these miles for my family trips. The ability of one way awards is also another good thing.

As a DTW hub captive, United has been a good alternative, and MSP has non stops on United to LAX and SFO which DTW does not.

jdrtravel

Personally, before jumping ship to United or American, I would give it a few months to see if/how they react to Delta's changes. I would be VERY surprised if United and American don't make their own changes in the coming months.

jrkmsp

Sun Country's route network isn't extensive, but they do allow families to pool mileage earning together. So you may get to reward tickets faster with them.

mAAine_flyer

If your main goal is earning RDMs towards domestic award travel, your best bet is probably going to be AS Mileage Plan which gives you the option of continuing to credit your DL flights (for now, anyways) and any AA flights you might end up taking.

hazelrah

United, and if you had a long trip you could book out of St. Cloud and park for free

HatAndJacket

WN may earn based on spend but they are much more generous than DL with how much you earn and how little you need to redeem, but they don't have upgrades, so decide what matters to you - elite benefits or free tix

Hawkeyefan

Great stuff guys, thanks.

MSPeconomist

UA has nonstops to ORD every hour or two, but mainline service tends to be either early morning or around dinner time. If you want to avoid small planes, this limits your choices. IIRC the SFO flights are just once a day. I think there's also a DEN flight as well as IAD and EWR. Basically, you're connecting through bad hubs most of the time.

toomanybooks

WN is good if you take inexpensive flights, as the redemption is proportional to the cost of the ticket. (For now) a $167 RT ticket is 10K on WN, instead of DL's 25K/50K.

Also 100% availability (if there is a ticket for sale on the flight, you can get it with points).

Of course, with expensive fares you come out less well. It all depends on where you tend to go.

MikeMpls

Alternatively, if you love south of the metro & RST would work for you, consider AA. You can connect to ORD on AA out of either MSP or RST.

We dumped Delta (except for finishing the big burn) > 5 years ago. We had large amounts of both domestic & international travel. If you want to focus your travel on WN, you will need a second airline for international travel and a backup for a few (very few) destinations that don't work out on WN.

We flew WN ex-MSP free on bump vouchers about 30 times a year for a couple years, had to use CO 2 or 3 times for backup, used CO/UA for international.

You can do well on WN ex MSP, but plan on using your backup airline about 5-10% of the time, also plan on connecting itineraries unless your destination is one of a small number of their one-hop cities ex-MSP.

Lots of snobbish people here like to deride WN. We've always found them fun to fly, with both employees & other travelers happy to be there.

I missed the lounge access (no lounge in Humphrey Terminal) but never really missed the upgrades (increasingly a moot concern on Delta anyway) when I was on WN.

MSPeconomist

Without traffic jams, RST is about 90 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. IIRC it has cheap but not free parking. I don't think there are any hotels real close to the airport, but there are a bunch near the expressway exit, including most of the lower tier chains (no SPG or Hyatt) as well as at least one fancy independent hotel downtown next to one of the hospitals. The terminal looks nice and new.

aj411

I would agree with the post about waiting to see the fall out - though Delta has not been our choice for ability to use FF miles out of MSPfor quite a while.

Part of your decision should be based on where you like to go with your FF miles. We like to go for the warm Caribbean weather when we can so AA has been our choice from either MSP or RST. Takes fewer miles than Delta and seem to be easier to use. Delta just doesn't go where we want to use the FF miles

We still end up with a few Delta miles due to work or trip to places that AA doesn't go when we need, so occasionally get enough to use them but AA is still our preference.

The one down side for us is that though we have an AA credit card which works well, I can't transfer my AA platinum points to AA (I can to Delta).

Just some additional info,
AJ

Hawkeyefan

Ha, funny you mentioned RST, I live 3 miles down the road from it. Only hotel within 5 miles is an Americinn. Terminal is not new but has undergone renovations recently. A new terminal building is in the long term works.

As per the advice....I am thinking I may pursue either American or Southwest. United does not fly out of RST, and has a small presence at MSP. I can do AA out of RST though. Southwest, could do merely for the friendliness of the FF program and the fact it goes to a lot of warm weather destinations that we like to do in the winter and early spring.