No standby priority for CO elites? That's BRUTAL. Mrbally is right...this is a key benefit of elite status that we had all sort of overlooked.

About a month ago, I was on standby for an AA flight on a Friday afternoon out of DFW. It was a full flight, everyone knew that bad weather was on the way, and lots of people were standing around trying to get onboard. Only 2 standbys got on out of what looked like about 25 hopefuls, and one of them was me. I sort of felt guilty about it. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Asking for your FF# is not to "weed out" the non-elites; the reason that it accepts anything is purely because they don't want for a good customer without their FF# to be ignored. However, when you enter in your FF#, the agent has it appear on their screen when taking the call. Haven't you ever noticed that they don't ask you your name or FF# when you enter that in there first?

As far as upgrades, I'm seeing about 70% as a silver (almost gold), even on transcon flights or on popular routes during peak business travel times.

I've got a lovely situation here.

I live in South Florida. That means that just about everywhere I travel I have to fly Delta in order to get a decent flight and a decent rate. The only other options I have (sometimes) is to fly CO, or US.

I have earned Silver on DL, but like everyone else I would love to find a better FF program. The program was great when I first made Elite, but now it's terrible.

I usually fly about 30K, a year, but I fly probably about 40-50 segments.

Any suggestions about which would be the best FF program for me to join? AA is out because they don't really offer any flights for me. My home base is PBI Airport.

Thanks!!

My home base is PBI also..and I always..always fly AA...sometimes FLL and MIA for long hauls, but it works well for me AA EXP million miler.

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MRKEY

US has a pretty good low-elite level (Silver). Your upgrade opportunities are the most of any airline that uses certificates/stickers. Silvers also get 2 one-way int'l upgrades per year (use with any fare, with generous capacity control), which is something I haven't seen ANY other airline do. This perk is almost worth a mileage run by itself. Also, US generally offers good customer service to Silvers - both on the phone and at the airport.

Only downside: the proposed merger. That would turn you into a UA Premier. We don't even want to discuss that.

Having flown and accumulated over 3 million miles on a half dozen domestic airlines, I can vouch for the value of elite status. As a Chairman's Preferred member in the USAIRWAYS Program,I HAVE NEVER FLOWN COACH in the past two years, even when using deeply discounted tickets. Delta's program is by far the worst and I've given up on them and haven't flown them this year. CO's program is excellent, except for upgrades on international flights. Obviously, I'm not looking forward to the US merger with UA and, quite frankly, hope it doesn't happen. US will survive without them if it doesn't happen and probably be an even better airline than it is today, although I have no complaints.

If elite status is within your grasps, GO FOR IT!

Doesn't US have the lion's share over UA?

I thought if the merger goes through that US would have the FF program ride over the UA.

I guess that would be really bad if what you're saying is true.

It's exactly the opposite-UA is the larger airline and US is the airline being acquired, so the US Dividend Miles program would be absorbed into the UA program. It's my understanding that UA won't mirror many of the benefits that US members currently enjoy-such as unlimited upgrades for the highest elite level tier.

...and low-level elites will never see another systemwide upgrade again.

I am BA Gold and *A Gold and for what it's worth I don't think any of the schemes are worth anything! I travel in business in Europe and Intercontinental so i get lounge access, the class I want and my company wants to pay. I get a pre assisgned seat on ful fare and I get a seat when I need one as no airline is really going to turn away a full fare ticket.

I have only once had to call on BA for use of its assistance service for being offloaded off a flight and received no help woth mentioning. Travelling as I do, free flights are OK but I maybe use them once a year because I would rather pop in the car and meander through France or some other European country.

I also find once they have you in their elite status the offers seem to dry up!

Elite status to me is worth the extra one or two flights a year I take to maintain it. The effort was worth it when last year, my wife and I traveling as Premiers (UA's lowest tier) were upgraded at the gate from an S coach fare to business class because coach had been oversold, on a flight from San Francisco to London. S class was so low that a UA ticket agent told me she had never heard of that class, and the fare is consistently not upgradeable. Our status got us two of the eight free upgrades that UA handed out at the gate.