ameskay

For someone who flies out of SFO, which would you recommend, Delta SkyMiles vs Alaska MileagePlan? I fly about 1-2 domestic trips a month (mostly to SEA and JFK/EWR) and 2 - 3 international trips a year to Europe or Asia.
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I find that Alaska is easier to get status and is much more generous with the complimentary upgrades, but doesn't have as many flight options as Delta. And Alaska wouldn't give me too many benefits on international travel, since it's not part of an alliance.

What do you think? Which would you pick?

AntonS

SFO-EWR/JFK +Asia and Europe?

Did you consider United ?

Where do you fly in Asia? Even if you do not want to fly United TPAC, you still have very good *A options out of SFO, including SQ, NH and BR all have some of the best business class in the world, IMHO. With Delta you are stuck with poor choice of Asian partners (with notable exceprion of KE). AS has CX, JL and KE, better than DL but I still think *A has much better options our of SFO.

For Europe with *A you have UA, LH, LX, LO, TK and maybe more. Maybe OS too, do not remember if they fly to SFO. With DL you have Virgin which is great, but not many connections from LHR + AF and KL. I do not count Alitalia, because it's not clear how long they will survive. With AS you have BA and AY?

For your location and travel, I think UA > AS > DL

bgriff

Upgrades on flights to NYC are going to be tough on any airline unless you fly enough to earn top-tier status, which it sounds like you wouldn't with your current travel patterns.

And if your travel patterns ever become more diverse domestically, UA would obviously have more nonstop options than DL; what AS has will depend how things evolve with their takeover of the Virgin America presence.

The quality of partner airlines is a big factor here, especially to Asia. If you flew domestically a lot and could benefit from DL's arguably superior service and operation, maybe it would be worth putting up with DL's generally lower-quality Asian partner options for a flight or two per year. But it's a tough call and depends how often you go to Asia. For Europe, IMO it's a closer call without a huge quality advantage for Star airlines, other than that there may be more nonstop options given the UA hub at SFO.

There are other smaller features of the FFPs which could swing your thinking too. 2 significant ones in favor of Delta: 1, Delta lets you roll over your MQMs (elite qualifying miles) in excess of what you needed to earn status, so if your flying can vary from year to year, rollover can help you maintain a higher elite level over time than you might with the other big FFPs. And 2, Delta's credit cards offer ways to earn extra MQMs (if you have at least $25K of spend per year to put on a Delta Amex) which may help push you up into a higher elite tier than you'd otherwise be able to reach, which can have real value, at the cost that you have to put that spend on a Delta Amex instead of a card which might earn some more valuable points/cashback. I don't know the details off the top of my head but AS and UA would have their own set of little unique things that might be of interest to you, though.

vincentharris

Do you like 737s? If not then definitely dont pick Alaska

Gig103

What class of service do you travel? If your domestic travel is economy but international is business, then some of the perks like a GUC might not matter.

3Cforme

Do you want to have premium class intercontinental award redemptions? Delta can demand a crap-ton of miles but Alaska is 100% at the mercy of partner saver levels. No savers, no Alaska redemptions.

ameskay

Thanks for your replies!

I do usually fly premium class (first for domestic and business for international), though with Alaska status, I've found less need to do so on domestic flights, since I'm often getting upgraded. I've almost always flown on the VX planes with my flying patterns and their first class is on point!

For my internal flights, I normally fly BA, since I'm most often going to London, or take OZ to go to Seoul (I know... not in the same alliance, but that's what my family flies).

I would say what I value most is getting compliment upgrades on domestic, and having access to great lounges for all my trips, but I don't think this will be that feasible given the poor lounge choices at SFO (or in general in the US for domestic trips). Wish there was an obvious choice like BA when I lived in London! Was great for both domestic and international.

bgriff

VX cabin interiors are disappearing soon, so that's not really a factor to consider.

Domestic lounge access with status isn't an option in the US. If you earned Gold status on DL or UA you'd have lounge access when flying internationally on them or their partners. You could also consider other options for lounge access -- notably with the Amex Platinum card, you'd have access to Delta Sky Clubs when flying Delta, as well as access to the Amex Centurion lounge at SFO and various other lounges through Amex and Priority Pass.

wxman13

To the OP, I went through this same analysis for myself at the beginning of the year (UA vs DL vs AS) and I'm also based out of SFO. Most of my travel is to Europe and the east coast. While UA has more nonstop options, their overall quality of service and on-time performance is lower. I ruled out AS since their international partner options are the weakest. I've been happy with Delta (lots of KLM and a bit of AF and VS flying) and the connection options across Europe. Most of the time I'm going to cities in Europe that would require a connection on UA/*A carriers as well, so that hasn't been a huge problem for me.

The weakest link for me is not having a DL nonstop to the DC area. There it's trip-by-trip, and I've taken UA, AS or DL (connecting) depending on flight times, duration and price. You should also keep in mind that AS will be reallocating its aircraft to concentrate B737s on transcontinental routes and A320s on west coast routes. Enjoy the VX first class seats while they last. Oh, and no AS lounge at SFO until 2020 at the soonest. The Delta Skyclub at SFO is really nice. So is the United Polaris lounge on the international G side.

bennos

SkyTeam also has Taiwan based China Airlines (CI), which IME has been better than average.

The DL SkyClub is one of the best domestic clubs in the system. And while SkyTeam lounges are in general inferior to other alliances, there are some good ones in there in DeltaTeam (Virgin Atlantic, the newer CDG lounges, whatever Virgin Australia is using at any given moment).

Domestic SkyClub is included with Delta Diamond status. Based on OP's travel patterns, DM is within reach. Monthly TCON = 60k MQM or 90k in J, INTL should be 10k+/rt. That gets real close to 125k MQM, assuming spend is there for MQD.

I'd probably lean slightly towards DL here, given the schedule advantage and that redeemable miles don't seem to be the top priority.

AntonS

With this pattern internationally, you maybe OK with Delta. BA is the worst major mainline carrier and IMHO VS>> BA in all cabins and KE >> OZ (although some may disagree on KE). You can also upgrade DL codeshare flight on VS from PE to J for relatively cheap, I think 20K miles and no copay.

If you are flying anything below business, VS has one of the best Premium Economy products in the world and KE has the best economy with seats is about good as DL C+ and food / service superior.

Gig103

I'm not a road warrior so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But if you're flying premium cabins and value lounge access, I'd go with Delta as the alliance, paired with an Amex Platinum (or Delta Reserve if you want to try to get the MQM boosts) for Skyclub access. It's nice that AS gives big mileage boosts when flying with partners in their business class cabins, but your domestic trips are more frequent and JFK-SFO is a "Delta One" route (lay-flat).

ameskay

Great, thanks for all the tips. I guess Delta it is! Though I will miss my travels through Heathrow terminal 5 dearly (not being sarcastic.. I really enjoy shopping there!)