NW vs Delta Program which one is better?
 

I am buying three Round Trip Tixs from DFW-BOM (Bombay, India) around 18,500 miles for round trip.
I am newbie to world of mileage. Which program is better NW or Delta? I know they both accept each other milage.

I also know that but not sure or know how to do it!!!
I can open one mileage account on my name and add all the milage for other 2 ticket to my account? Is this possible?
Any their any annual fee or other fee on either program?
I am buying tickets from a agent because they quoted me the lowest price. So what would be the procedure I can all the miles into one single account.

I am newbie so excuse my stupidity :)

Welcome to Flyertalk. This probably isn't the best thread for your question, but I invite you to take a look at the Northwest and Delta boards, which can be found here. Also, the "Search" feature above in the blue bar will also pull up a lot of relevant threads on choosing between Northwest and Delta as there have been similar threads before.

There is no annual fee on any program. All Frequent Flyer (FF) programs are free.

aloha

Welcome. If you're done travelling for '05, I recommend Delta. My impression is it is easier to redeem miles with DL than with NW. If you have more travel in '05, you will likely earn low/mid-level elite, and if so I recommend NW. This is based on NW's better mileage bonus for Silver elites (50% vs. 25%), and my belief that silvers and golds have better chance to upgrade to FC on NW than on DL...Pity you can't book on American.

Transferring miles is not free with either carrier. Maybe others know of some workarounds; I don't.

This is one of the biggest FT misconceptions. DL, NW, and CO have almost all the same partners, so mileage redemption is virtually identical between all 3 programs.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, whatsupss.

This forum is for the discussion of trips that are taken for the purpose of earning an unusual amount of points -- adding in extra stops, taking strange routings, or just taking advantage of a great deal to top off that mileage or point account.

Your question is best suited for the MilesBuzz forum, which is for non-program-specific questions. As we don't allow "cross-posting" the same message in two different forums, it wouldn't be appropriate to move this to either the NW or DL forums. Instead, I'll go ahead and move it over to MilesBuzz.

Thanks,

Dave, a.k.a. dmfriedman
Moderator, Mileage Run

Additional issues that I would consider include routings (there are some pretty complex itineraries DFW-BOM) and comfort (if you will be flying coach)...e.g., are NWA's DC-10s a pain compared to Delta's 767s)...

You can't pool all the miles into one FF account. Each passenger can sign up for an account (even children can have FF accounts) and have their miles deposited into their account. Some carriers may allow family members to pool miles, but I don't think that NW or Delta allow this.

Assuming you are flying on NW or DL, you can put your miles in Korean Air's Skypass provided the class of service is eligible. With Skypass, you can link up to 5 family members' (must be immediate family members, excluding siblings) for award redemption purposes. Each member still has his/her own account, but the miles in each account can be pooled together to redeem for awards. With each roundtrip @ 18,500 miles, you have about 55,000 miles for redemption. May be it's worth for you to look into.

LAX

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Personally I like DL much better since you connect through SLC/ATL/CVG rather than snowy and far MSP/DTW. You can get 1000 DL miles booking DL flights online at Delta.com and then also get NW/other skyteam miles w/DL. But if you're in DFW, can you find a way to use a Oneworld partner(although they are weak in Asia) and get A A miles?

hmmm, too much information or what? Here's some ideas in order:
 

1) you are BUYING 3 round trip tickets...
Assuming these are for say, 2 family members and yourself, you each should set up FF accounts with an airline. Personally, I like Northwest but I suppose it could be based on which airline flies more where you live. They are partners so if you have miles on one, you can generally use them on the other. But right now, if I have this right, you said you are buying tickets and will be therefore EARNING miles, not using them. Right?

2) each person earns his or her own miles. You get yours, they get theirs. Cant combine. Well, later on, there are ways to possibly transfer them, etc, but that's different. It also costs fees and can be problematic.

3) earning 18,500 miles on one trip is pretty good! I hope they serve a snack ;) You will be close to the std. 25k award in no time. When you are done flying and have the miles, ask this forum more about how to top these accounts off to that 25k or better level... There are ways beyond one's wildest imagination...

4) I do not know of any fees to have an FF account, at least not if you live in the USA> BUT if you are from another country or setting up a membership on NW or DL in another country, well, who knows. I have heard of such things but I wouldnt begin to know. If you happen to be somewhere else then maybe you should do this using the address of some relative in the states. BUT I am sure no fees should be charged to have a miles account! Gee, let's hope not!

5) booking thru an agent: You could run into issues where the flights are coded in such a way (that most new customers would never know of) whereas you recive no miles! I have not heard of any such flights on DL or NW, but I know Singapore Airlines and Iceland Air have these. I also know that group or travel agent flights often are coded in such a way where they may not allow miles because of the discount. I often tell the story of my mother who flew on a group tour with a partner airline of Delta a couple years ago and she did not tell the gate agent her DL FF number when checking in, but others on the tour had done this. So she figured she could just mail in the boarding passes after she got back home but they wrote back telling her no miles on group flights! The others got their miles. So the next year she took a similar trip on another DL partner and this time she told the gate agent the FF number and got her miles. Others did not! Ask your agent if you have an FF account, if you will get miles. Give them your FF numbers but also present them to the gate agent when checking in to fly. AND save all boarding cards and printouts! IN fact, when dealing with miles, save everything until you see the miles post to your accounts. You can set up online and so you should do this for you and your party before flying.

PS: if you sign up for NW and agree to receive their emails, they will give you 1,000 bonus miles. I dunno if DL has a similar deal but check the web sites of both! Here's the one for NW:

http://www.nwaworldvacations.com/spe...alOfferId=4099

Sign up to receive weekly specials from NWA WorldVacations® via NWA E-mail for two months and you'll receive 1,000 WorldPerks® miles!

Terms and Conditions:

Must be a WorldPerks member residing in the 50 United States or Canada.
Bonus miles will be awarded for first time subscribers only; current or previous subscribers are not eligible.
This is a one-time bonus offer.
Members must remain subscribed for NWA Email for two months to qualify.
1,000 Bonus Miles will be credited to members' accounts 2-4 weeks after qualification.
WorldPerks members must provide WorldPerks number and valid email address at www.nwa.com/wpemail and agree to receive email updates from Northwest Airlines to qualify for Bonus Miles.


6) you may be new, but no one is stupid. Welcome and good luck!
This thread and the FT in general can be overwelming and fast for some, but you will get it and if you have questions, many great minds will be here to help from all angles. Some airlines also allow referrals whereas you can earn or let someone else earn because of your membership. Pick your family members or maybe some FT friends you meet in here! Or, do other promotions and if you can, get their credit cards with big bonus offers. You will see, we will help. All that aside, I hope my tiny piece of the pie offers you some of what you need to become addicted to travel and miles!

;)MM

"This is one of the biggest FT misconceptions. DL, NW, and CO have almost all the same partners, so mileage redemption is virtually identical between all 3 programs."

Sorry to disagree, but there are some major differences between CO and NW (I can't comment on DL). It all depends on how you want to use your miles. Want to fly QF to Australia(Only CO has an arrangement). Want to fly MH to Asia (choose NW). Want to fly Air Tahiti Nui to Tahiti, only NW once again.

On top of that I was always under the impression that award availability wasn't always the same between an individual airline's FF program and the awards made available to SkyTeam. In other words I might have a better chance of getting an award on NW through World Perks than through Sky Miles.

Please tell me if this is incorrect.

Thanks,
-Andrew

This will change in 2005, DL will begin a partnership with TN as well.

It may be a moot point since many consolidator tickets do not allow mileage accumulation.