hockeyinsider

I've hit platinum status with Delta and have been giving more thought to switching my loyalty to another airline and alliance. I've really been considered American & oneworld. What's the consensus here? I assume they'll do a status match. On a side note, Cathay Pacific gave me silver status without questions. Would it be beneficial to just keep this and use their partner American? I plan on flying 1-2 times to Asia in the next six months as well as 2-3 trips to Europe. I'm mostly displeased with Delta's partners -- namely Air France -- which I don't believe offer a consistent service for Delta elites. On a normal year, I fly 50,000 to 75,000 miles a year.

bryand83

What class do you fly? I am currently with BA for a couple of reasons...

Gold is easy to obtain if you fly in premium cabins
When you fly domestically on aA/us you get lounge access and usually a couple of free premium drinks
They give you tons of avios which, provided you don't fly through London, can be great value esp on short haul domestics
I find that I get opups on AA fairly regularly and get treated as an Exp on board
They do soft landings so if I cut back on flying I get a few years yet of perks

You will find a million different answers here but that is what works for me.

hockeyinsider

Domestically, I always fly economy but have about a 60% upgrade average being a Delta elite. I fly trans-Atlantic every six weeks and will do economy, unless I can get business or a premium economy for under $2,500.

I'm sorry, but what do you mean by this:

What irks me the most is I feel Delta's elites don't get treated well by A.F. or KLM when in Europe, especially outside Paris or Amsterdam and at the smaller airports.

I wish I could fly some of the SkyTeam partners, but Delta doesn't make it worth my effort to stay loyal to SkyTeam members except Delta, A.F., KLM and Alitalia because I wouldn't receive 100% miles.

I've never heard bad things about oneworld and it seems to be stronger in Europe and Asia.

Mwenenzi

Look and ask here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

AA will not status match, but will offer you the Gold/Plat challenge for faster status
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-sense-me.html

bryand83

Originally Posted by bdohmen View Post
"I find that I get opups on AA fairly regularly and get treated as an Exp on board"
BA/AA seem to be pretty reasonable with recognizing each others elites when dealing with opups. As an AA EXP (equivalent to my BA Gold) you can request space available upgrades domestically which you cant as BA gold. But when there is an oversold situation I find I get upgraded after the AA EXP and before the AA Platinum. Additionally I have found that BA will upgrade AA frequent flyers using the same rules. When I do fly AA and end up in Y I still get free drinks and food just like as if I was an AA EXP.

They do soft landings so if I cut back on flying I get a few years yet of perks
If you are an AA EXP and you cut back dramatically you could end up with nothing the following year. With the soft landing I will go from BA Gold to BA Sapphire to BA Bronze and then to nothing over the course of a year each. Being as I have already requalified for Gold for my next year I will be Gold until the end of 2015, Silver until the end of 2016, and Bronze until the end of 2017. Basically this means I get to use all of the AA lounges for free until the end of 2016 even if I stopped flying for work immediately.

If you only fly economy however they are not the best as their status program is largely, in my opinion, revenue based.