The Best Elite Status Program (Comparatively)
 

This site is great. I have always had the concept of the mileage run in my head and had figured the values of miles and such, but this is awesome.
Ok, I've flown DL mostly through my childhood, currently I've got about 10000 MQMs for the year. With UA I have only 1000 MQMs. I have read mixed reviews about DL's medallion program and was wondering if anyone had some insight. Either way, I will probably go for only 1P this year (SM or Premiere). Of course, it would be easier to go for the DL as I am about half way there (and if I upgrade my regular AMEX, I'll get 5000 MQMs for $80). I was thinking about getting the SM on DL and then requesting a comp from UA (although I'm not positive they will comp the lowest status on DL). I do a fair amount of cross-country here in the US to LAX, but love to travel abroad also. Any tips or thoughts would be appreciated.
Also, I currently reside in Nashville (closer to more DL), but will move to Los Angeles in September (closer to more UA). So, in closing, if anyone could have some recommendations while comparing the benefits of each program, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank You and God Bless

P.S. Or could I try for the AA elite challenge?

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Unfortunately this post really doesn't belong in the Mileage run forum. Hopefully a moderator will move it somewhere where it will get some useful responses.

Congress
 

I think Congress has one of the best elite status programs around. Hey we deserve a raise, but we have to vote on it first. Do I hear a second.......

Yes, I didn't think it would be a MR topic, but I didn't want to limit the responses to one FF program or the other (on those boards). A mod with more knowledge than I for the best forum will hopefully place it properly.

I'll go ahead and move this over to the MilesBuzz forum, which is for the discussion of overall miles and points, including programs.

The answer to the OP's question is (groan), It Depends. Factors like where you can get award travel and what kind of things you want (upgrades or free trips?) are important. And some programs might look good on paper but be bad for seat availability or upgrade policy.

The big extra variable these days is what class of travel your tickets are in. If you're like me and always get the lowest fare category on your own dime then the picture looks different from those who can fly business at Y or a notch or two down.

In my case, NW Worldperks is the best for me and I live in SFO. As many have mentioned, its Elite program is one of the most generous as far as domestic upgrades is concerned and the percentage of successful upgrades, even for Silvers, seem a bit better than other programs. In addition, this program allows you to redeem awards by splitting it in either Y and J.

Having said that, if you plan to redeem awards to fly internationally, UA has the best group of foreign carriers under *A. I used to belong to US and the awards availability of *A partners was great in my experience. Remeber that UA, LH, SQ, NH and NZ still offer a F/C product and J/C on OS and BD are excellent too while on Skyteam only AF and KE have F (although as many have reported, KE F or J is not up to par with the likes of SQ or CX). Whichever program you choose, it has to be best tailored to your personal preferences.

Depends on where you live and where you want to fly!

Domestically, NW is great if they go where you go. Free upgrades kick in pretty low.

Basically, I guess anyone that gives free upgrades at the 100 hour mark for top-tier would be great for me, though it can be tough getting their. So mid-tier free upgrades is even better!

My primary carriers are UA (1K) and DL (Lifetime FO) and that suits my current travel patterns just fine. HOWEVER, UA is of course in bankruptcy and DL is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. So, I'm in an earn 'em and burn 'em mode. If your goal is to rack up mileage in a relatively safe program in order to cash them in years from now for that trip of a lifetime, look elsewhere.

If your short-term goal is to score domestic upgrades, shoot for atleast mid-tier level in any legacy carrier program. If your goal is to score international upgrades, UA and AA are pretty good. DL/CO/NW are tough. If your goal is award availability it depends on so many factors, e.g. frequency, season, equipment, it's difficult to say which program is better at any given time.

For Top Tier...
 

I would seriously consider American's AAdvantage EXP Status. It's a nice hybrid as you not only get the free domestic upgrades but relatively easy international upgrades as well (compared to NW, CO & DL). Moreover, American does not penalize you for buying the cheap tickets - instead they reward you for purchasing the expensive tickets via their Q-Points system.

As always, YMMV.

there is no best, even comparatively. just fly whatever is cheaper, save yourself some grief.
or do it like i do it, fly with whomever goes nonstop. as i live in dallas it will put me at exp this year, but if i go to dtw, i fly nwa, etc. i am not loyal to aa, they just happen to have a hub in my hometown and thier flights are conveniently nonstop.

Amen to that. Flew a PER-RAR-CHC-PER award trip on NZ with a 20K award through *A this past month. Seemed to get a lot more perks for gold UA status on NZ than I ever got on UA. Ironic, too, since NZ bashes its own low-revs through its Airpoints program.

IMO *A positively stomps OneWorld or SkyTeam, and it was enough to make me think twice about switching out of UA. But their reduced schedules here and persistent problems with sale-fare availability, as well as NW's more generous upgrades, finally sealed the deal.

I wish ST could be in the same ballpark as *A, but getting ornery members like KE or AF to agree to a single award chart with reasonable levels and without a ton of exception footnotes has so far been too big a hurdle.

:-: You are good! :-:

Maybe I'll need to redeem some CO miles SPN-GUM-DPS, QF DPS-PER, and then follow your example! @:-)

One more factor to throw into the mix is the possibility of earning lifetime elite status, currently available on UA for 1 million miles (1P), AA for 1 million (Gold) or 2 million miles (Platinum), and DL for 1 million (SM), 2 million (GM) or 4 million miles (PM). AA includes non-flown partner miles in this calculation. Of course, will they all be around for your lifetime? :confused:

There are so many factors to consider, and our generous host Randy Petersen covers them well if you subscribe to his magazine Inside Flyer. Or read these boards regularly. This is the kind of question to which you will not get a simple answer. One size does not fit all.

let's compare 25k awards
 

here are my thoughts on 25k awards (with respect to the programs in which i bank miles):

aa -- domestic awards are awesome because they have the best availability and permit stopovers (in addition to open jaws). the fees aren't very nice ime, but they win hands down for complex itins. because aa miles are so valuable, i generally try to redeem on other carries first.

as -- the fact that you can redeem for 20k is great, plus they allow stopovers (only in connection cities though). unfortunately, for me at least, it's hard to resist using as flights as a means to top off my aa and nw accounts.

co/dl/nw -- i can only comment on nw because that's where i bank most of my skyteam flights. i like the lack of booking fees and the fact that you can make unlimited online changes for $25. this means i can fly from pdx to was and return from pretty much any airport in the eastern half of the us on a whim.

hp -- you can do some pretty creative stuff with the 15k awards and availability is good ime, but i have nothing special to say about hp.

ua -- no booking fees online, but availability isn't all that good. in general, i use my ua miles for asia-related stuff.

edited to add: i had intended to start a new thread with this post but replied to this one by accident. in any case, i think the issue is somewhat relevant to the topic at hand because the value of all those miles is contingent upon how we can use them. moreover, given the fact that international upgrades are a pita on most carriers now and many, if not most, of us like to fly internationally on rev tickets, domestic awards really are one of the best possible uses of miles.

CO and NW require Sat night stays in order to qualify for 25k mile domestic awards. :( Plus both offer below-average availability at that mileage cost, in my experience. :td: