Robert Leach

Just curious: if you flew mostly J, why would immediate PM status matter?

El Boocho

One I know and the other I don't. However I believe both got it because the guy I know was told by the other one about it which prompted my friend to fax in his credentials.

I hear what you are saying about it not being a crazy amount on airfare, but I'd bet my right kidney it puts you in the top 1% of DL passengers. If you are flying TATL on business class fares at least once a month DL would be stupid not to fight for your business. Maybe DL is stupid, but they saw the light when it came to these two guys. For the record it was a few years ago (Mullin era) when the comp was made.

Edited to add that I seem to recall Cigarman (now a CO flyer) receiving a DL PM comp. I don't know him personally, but by all accounts he is a stand up guy.

El Boocho

yngdiego

$50K is not that much? That's 10 $5K tickets, or 100 $500 tickets. That's a huge amount of travel. I got PM last year on vastly less $$ with DL.

GUWonder

There are people that only take one trip every two months and spend $50k or more just by that. If entitled to business/first class travel internationally, the money racks up quickly .... at least the up-front costs of the travel. Hopefully the firm/individual has some kind of sales contact at the airline to negotiate something in return for directing the spending one airline's way.

GUWonder

Before building up your miles in the DL program, you might want to see how expensive some awards -- like US-Europe in biz class starting at 120,000 miles -- are with DL's program compared to with other airlines' programs, such as AA's.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_mi...eage/index.jsp

soitgoes

Methinks now might not be the time to be switching to Delta...

El Boocho

How did I miss this? When did it go to 120K. I'm surprised there isn't a thread on the first page of the DL forum discussing this change. Darn work must have gotten in the way of FT reading again.

Edited to add I found it on the first page. http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=817262

BosTravel

Hello All,

I've done a search on this, but was not able to find any recent posts on this topic.

I'm a AA Platinum flier, flying out of BOS, considering a switch to DL due to a series of service failures on AA and lack of follow through on their part.

My goal would be to get a status match to GM. I know this is the DL forum, so you all mostly prefer Delta, but I was hoping that some people on here would have experience on both airlines and could tell me what would be better / worse with DL versus AA.

Also, I have boat loads of miles, so I sometimes upgrade to F w/ miles to gtd the upgrade. One of things I like about AA is their availability of mile upgrades...how does this compare to DL?

Thanks so much.

mersk862

On DL, you would get unlimited upgrades, so no more 500 mile certs to use. Of course, the downside is that it's much harder to use miles to confirm the upgrades (need to be on a pretty high fare to do so).

As to those upgrades, what are your primary routes? If you plan on going through ATL a lot at peak times, then odds are good you'll be in coach, since BOS does have it's fair share of Platinums. I've found CVG to be a little easier and SLC can be hit or miss. Florida should be decent for a GM, and JFK is pretty easy on the CRJ-900 flights.

LoganFlyer

Greetings, BOS neighbor! As a DL GM out of BOS, here are my thoughts:

1. As mersk862 pointed out, you get unlimited upgrades on DL. I am maybe 20% on non-weekend BOS-ATL flights and 100% BOS-CVG. BOS-ATL is all mainline (mix of 738s, MDs, and 757s) and many non-MD flights get the PTVs. BOS-CVG is some mainline (738s) and some express (CR9s, occasional CR7s.) Avoid Freedom Air (some CR9s to both CVG & JFK) if possible.

2. DL's terminal A is leaps and bounds and more leaps and more bounds SO much better than AA's terminal B.

3. On DL, even in coach, you get a choice of three snacks for free, unlike AA's pay for anything philosophy.

The only thing better about AA that I can think of is their more extensive worldwide route network. Where do you need to fly?

mersk862

The other nice thing on DL (for some) is that the Crown Rooms have free alcohol, while the Admiral's Clubs charge per drink.

I personally haven't had a problem in my handful of Freedom Air flights, but have heard the stories.

BosTravel

Thanks for the info mersk862 and LoganFlyer. I appreciate it.

My flights patterns are really varied, and my travel takes me pretty much anywhere in the US and Canada (occasionally).

Thanks again!

Robert Leach

Not sure I would agree with that. From Boston, perhaps, but worldwide I think Delta has the superior network reach. Once Asia comes on line as a result of the NW merger, it won't even be close.

troyb

As a NYC based AA Platinum and DL GM who flies frequently to BOS, I think your decision would come down to what you value more, miles (and the associated redemption options such as miles upgrades and award flights) or "complimentary" upgrades from status. I've had extremely good luck with upgrades between BOS and JFK/LAS/and even ATL.

With AA you'll get much better use out of your miles, but your "free" upgrade potential will be greatly diminished compared to DL, unless you're willing to pay for additional stickers. With DL, you're going to get much less valuable miles (which as noted above are difficult and not worth using for mileage based upgrades), but overall more likely to be sitting in F due to status upgrades.

Generally speaking I tend to get better service from DL than AA. I don't know what others have experienced, but that has been the case for me. I put a decent amount of value on the ability to do Same Day Confirmed (SDC) without a fee on DL.

I originally status matched from AA to DL, so I don't expect you'll have a problem there.