OTD

Nice idea, but how would you enforce it? Granny's just going to get up and leave when the rest of the people in her row do. I doubt the FAs want to start cracking down on this.

readywhenyouare

azeckel

Wow, this thread turned weird fast.

As to AA vs DL I appreciate the perspective. As a longtime DM on Delta I've recently been flying places where AA would be more convenient (even direct vs connect) and is almost universally across the board cheaper. Switching costs seem super high for me, and I do appreciate all things that come with DM status from sky club access, FC upgrades, easy SDC, etc. So I'm sticking it out, for now at least.

HDQDD

Welcome to DL. I'm a former AA traveler as well and quite happy with DL.

I'd argue exactly the opposite. DL's boarding process is a mess. There's at least 4 boarding groups before Zone 1. So you end up with a bunch of kettles who are in Zone 1 and (logically) think they're boarding first and jam up the boarding area. I'd much prefer the way that AA does it. You can clearly know if you're in Z4 that Z1-3 will board before you.

pvn

yeah that sounds legal.

readywhenyouare

ElmhurstNick

I made the move in December 2016 after AA announced their devaluation of upgrade priority for EXP and Priority Pro. I still flew AA a fair amount last year as an EXP, but I flew Delta more. Got matched to DL plat early, ran on a pace to requal all year until I got sick in September. Have floated back to Gold for 2018 but with an extra 13k MQM to soften the blow. No credit card, don't really need it thanks to partner EQDs.

Some thoughts:
1. The DL coach seats are more comfortable than the AA coach seats, by a wide margin.
2. The DL staff is consistently friendlier
3. The DL domestic F seats have about 2.5 inches less pitch than the AA seats. But they are free for all tiers if you can clear.
4. There are way more DL C+ seats than AA MCE seats.
5. As long as I avoided Atlanta, my upgrade percentage was about 70% last year as a Plat. My upgrade percentage on AA as an EXP wasn't that good.
6. VS Premium Economy is all I need to cross the Atlantic, and it's reasonably priced and gives a bucket-full of MQD.
7. I'm spending more time in 2018 connecting. But my travel patterns are changing and by mid-2019 I won't be living full time in an AA hub, and connections will be a way of life.
8. The DL Sky Clubs are pretty nice with something approximating real food. I have a lot of 2pm flights, and a plate of pasta salad and a cookie is just fine.
9. DL Clubs have Sprite Zero. (At the ORD club, it's hidden in the refrigerator in the back)
10. DTW is a pleasure for connections, and ATL is more efficient than CLT.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the move.

LegalTender

News to me. Wonder what AA is smoking.

FBplatinum

If you read my post carefully...
I am happy to lets pass first wheelchair passenger (life is not easy for them), but I am again peoples abusing the system and play with the rules.

I know handicap peoples, what make me upset is peoples without handicap, playing handicap to receive advantages of handicap peoples. This also apply for parking place, some peoples have the sticker for handicap parking, and abuse of it (I have see many time peoples use this sticker, going out of their minivan NORMALY). They take the place of a real handicap person.


IS the peoples 'playing' this, who are missing empathy (and peoples who also defend this also).
To fake handicap when you did not have one, IS A FRAUD.

Situation is very, VERY simple...
Airline know who ask for wheelchair, because they must also arrange for them when they will disembark at arrival.

It is simple: when the person arrive at airport and request (or have already request) a wheelchair, is:

- To inform them, at the arrival they MUST wait to disembark by wheelchair also (at the end).

- If they did not wait (go out by themselves), this mean they ARE NOT handicap… period (or some miracle happen in the plane).

- In both case (miracle or not) next time, their request for wheelchair will be reject.

I agree, Delta MUST respect the law.

BUT, it is not broken the law to refuse a service to peoples who fake an handicap.

tkelsay

Can we clean this thread up to stay on topic? I don't believe this thread is the place to discuss the legal ramifications of abusing the use of wheelchairs. I'm generally interested in the status and flying differences between AA and DL, I'd love to hear more experiences from people. I have considered doing a late 2018 status match to test the waters with AA. My main concern with DL is that I have a boatload of miles but can't find any decent D1 transatlantic redemption but I can find a ton on AA. I was, however, able to get D1 to NRT with 160K miles round trip last year, but have not found anything near as good for travel this year (and it seems to be getting worse).

ijgordon

I'm almost certain there are a ton, in both the AA and DL forums.

I think you'll find that DL has a lot more "in-between" pricing compared to AA's Saver vs. Anytime awards. So it's probably not terribly difficult to find DL availability at, say, a 50-75% premium to the lowest (not that anyone knows what the lowest really is on DL...) whereas on AA it's either low level or a 100% premium (putting aside the Anytime 1 and 2 levels, and I'm simplifying). So if you have flexibility and time to look, you'll find better options with AAdvantage, but if you have a lot of miles, maybe DL works better for you.

There are just a few humps I can't get over on SkyMiles - the mileage upgrade system (on longhaul) is terrible, no international first class rewards, no free award changes (unless 75k+ elite flyier), and that stupid 72 hour rule that prevents you from finding a better itinerary/routing at the last minute.

I also hate the frequent close-in schedule changes on DL - just had two on a r/t for DL 6 weeks in advance. Really, Delta?
And of course on DL, when things go bad, they go BAD.

tkelsay

Thanks for the mileage insight, I'm not too familiar with AA award tickets but did some dummy bookings around my flights this year and found a lot more saver availability compared to my DL flights. One thing with DL that bothers me as well, I wish the RUCs with DL were available to apply online because I tend to have trouble with them quite often. I used all 4 this year already for a round trip with 2 pax mainly because I don't want to deal with having to use them later in the year. My understanding is plat pro does not have any certificates such as RUCs or GUCs which is a major drawback. Are the Exec Plat system wide certificates able to be applied online or is it also a call in and play the "can you check this flight for me" game with an agent?

fpmurphy

And limit the number of people that pre-board with the wheelchair passenger to a max of one or two.

boss315

I've been with DL. UA and AA..AA has been the most consistent..

AndyPatterson

Do you mean that AA has been the most consistently bad?!

I find it hard to generalize among the top three USA airlines, anyway. So many mergers it is hard to have a consistent product.