Best FF Program when flying LGA to LAX every week?
 

I currently have most of my points at DL and a decent amount at United. I also just recently signed up for the Amex DL Gold card and was planning with sticking with them. Would I get any benefits from fly this often with another carrier?

Please forgive me if you’re aware of this but I don’t think any airline flies LGA-LAX nonstop. I have flown LGA-LAX (with a stop) occasionally, to increase miles or increase chances of an upgrade or for a lower airfare, but if I had to do it every week I’d certainly drive the extra 20-30 minutes to JFK (from which several airlines fly nonstop to LAX). The stop increases total travel time by at least 1-1.5 hours and doubles the chances of a delay. Once in a while that’s all worth it, every week is another story.

Exactly. I take it this will be a flight for work? Assuming you don't want to connect every time, I recommend going with JFK rather than EWR as your new airport, because JFK has 5 non-stop options to LAX: AA, UA, DL, VX and B6. All these options will be useful for you at times, especially if something goes wrong (EWR only has AA and UA flying to LAX). The legacy airlines (AA/UA/DL) should be the way to go as far as perks, etc.

Especially if price does not matter, I'd recommend going with a frequent flyer program that gives you systemwide upgrades (SWUs) if you fly 100,000+ miles per year (and you will... you should break 250,000 miles per calendar year on your schedule). I think that means AA or UA would be ideal (I believe one or both give you incremental SWUs the more you fly; someone else, please clarify this). DL's SWUs are hard to use.

As for upgrade percentage, I'm not sure which of DL, AA or UA is best. Perhaps others can chime in. As for quality of the product, both in Y and up front, I'm also not sure about the differences/intricacies. Hopefully, others can chime in on this, too.

It might be worthwhile, by the way, to choose 2 programs and hit the highest tier with each of them. That said, you may not enjoy the process of hitting that highest tier, especially on AA (you only get unlimited upgrades at their highest tier, Executive Platinum, which takes 100,000 miles to hit (granted, the JFK-LAX upgrade is generally tough at lower tiers on other airlines anyway)).

All that said, I'm not entirely sure what's most important to you. If you can tell us, that would be great. Things that might be important to you are flight frequency, flights at specific times, upgrade %, quality of product, frequent flyer perks (like SWUs), mile accumulation (i.e. best/highest RDM bonuses for elites), ease of award redemption, etc. Let us know.

(Also, I can certainly tell you which program(s) I'd choose, if I were you, and why... but my preferences/priorities may differ from yours.)

DL SWUs are a pain internationally, less so domestically (only need K+ fare).

For JFK-LAX, upgrades will be tough anywhere. AA only gives UGs to 100K flyers and makes lower tiers apply with 5 upgrade stickers. UA requires RPUs (regional SWUs) for JFK-LAX. Delta includes JFK-LAX on complimentary upgrades but with a 16-person cabin, usually no one below Diamond/Platinum will get upgraded during business hours. However, a SWU puts you at the top of the list.

DL runs 757s with Business Elite and some Economy Comfort. UA is changing to 2-cabin 757s with Business First and some E+. Right now, AA doesn't have a "Economy Plus" product on their 767s, but should when they start their A321s in the future.

This makes me think that UA should be "out" as an option, because even at top tier, there won't be an upgrade chance without RPUs. With DL and American, there's an upgrade chance (albeit only at Executive Platinum with AA). The other plus of focusing on AA and DL is that they have a lot of routes from LGA (and JFK), whereas UA does not, so if you need to fly to other destinations at some point, AA and DL will be convenient.

Based on upgrades (again, not sure what the OP is seeking), I'd aim to reach 100K miles with AA (to reach Exec Plat) and 125K with Delta (to reach Diamond, which also gets lounge access, if I recall correctly). You should end up flying enough to reach top tier on each of those airlines. After you hit the 50K level on either airline, you might be able to status match to a *A carrier like TK so that you can at least have lounge access if you ever need to fly UA (or US to other locations).

As already hinted, the JFK-LAX upgrade is rough. On AA, if you aren't EXP, you pretty much will not have a chance at getting the upgrade even using stickers unless you fly at off-times (and even then it's not easy).

There is a perimeter rule at LGA (According to the wiki page on LGA, it's 1500 miles, except for flights on Saturdays or flights to Denver), so I don't think any carrier can fly LGA-LAX nonstop. I agree that if you're making this trip with such frequency, nonstop will definitely be preferred.

Although I am biased toward AA, I must recommend them especially if you can make EXP. You don't say what class of service you fly this route in, but AA will soon be the only carrier to offer three class service on JFK-LAX, and once their new A321s start coming in, they should have a very decent product, including horizontal lie flat seats in F and J. As an EXP, you should have a chance of a free upgrade clearing, depending on how far ahead you book.

As of right now, AA's SWUs are also the most flexible, in that they can be used on any fare. UA's SWU can only be used on W fares or above, which can get quite expensive. DL's SWUs are also considerably more restrictive than AA's.

Yarhead makes a good point that it will depend on your own personal preferences, and what is important to us may not be as important to you.

If you might travel from JFK to LAX at 9pm with any frequency, that would push me towards DL. They run a nonstop at that time which is IME a much easier upgrade than any of the other flights, and a free upgrade to DL's BE on this route is among the better options.

Wow, I wasn't aware of that. I assumed there would be flights from these airports. I would definitely want to fly non-stop.

Thanks for all this information.

Flight frequency would be nice but not necessary. I will probably be flying out the same time every Sunday and Thursday. High upgrade % isn't so important but would be nice. I believe mile accumlation and ease of award redemption would be the most important to me.

Since I am just starting to travel this much for work, my preferences may change with time (Upgrade % might be the #1 choice).

Please excuse my ignorance, but could you tell me what RPUs and SWUs are?

And is there a website that breaks down all the different fare codes?

They are (platinum?) medallion upgrade certificates.

Their intended use is international upgrades to business class on expensive (last minute) typically company bought coach tickets.

Often, their greatest and best use is for stealing the upgrades from a diamond on an otherwise hard-to upgrade flight :).

Around ~80% went unused when all platinums got them.

I guess they're now renamed "systemwide upgrades":
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_...erts/index.jsp

If ease of award redemption is your criteria don't fly Delta. Skymiles are often referred to as skypiles because they are not good for anything. IMO, United miles are easily the easiest to use.

SkyPesos ;)

I've cleared LAX-JFK as an AA Plat on redeye flights. I would really like to believe that if anyone is going to try for an upgrade, they'd go for one of those?

While I'm currently booked to about 225k EQM for the year, I won't comtemplate actively collecting Skypesos by focusing on DL (in addition to AA/UA).