BEST
Diners Club, double British Airways redemption every summer

American, Million Miler Lifetime Gold (2MM, Lifetime Platinum).

British Airways, Concorde Award

United, 100K, First Class US-Europe(vs 125K on AA)

United:

pro - First Meal Choices for 1K, Systemwide Upgrades, 1K service centres
con - Upgrades on H and higher fares internationally, Follower not leader, inconsistant service

Continental
Best: unlimited domestic upgrades, generous mileage bonuses

Worst: HoKeY; 100,000 miles for free Business First ticket over the Atlantic; no system-wide upgrades, no dedicated assistance counters at airports

KLM Flying Dutchman

+++ One-Way award tix as basis - you can build your individual route as you want
++ huge bonus-miles promos (last year you could easily get 72k miles in Germany via a contest; actually they comp FF-status and MILEAGE of other FF-Progs-members...)
++ Upgrades possible on every paid fare
+ Automatic Upgrade on NW intra-US for Royalwing elites
- Upgrade availability not too good
- lame information policy and customer support
- complicated Points-Programm with tables only available in print and different for each country
--- addtl. award points needed for connections to AMS

CO:

Best - Domestic Upgrade Program

Worst - HoKeY Int'l Upgrades

RChavez

KLM

Worst: need to spend (large) amounts of points for connections to AMS on award tickets (while those are very cheap if buying cheap econ tickets.
Bad: low earning (no real miles earning) = expensive award tickets
Bad: no automatic upgrades except in US, no system wide upgrade vouchers for elite tier members, no Million Miler status (would probably equal something more like 1.5 million real miles)

Best feature: lounges

NW

Best - Domestic upgrade policy

Worst - Poor availability for international award tickets (particularly Europe)

No international upgrade certificates and limited upgrade opportunities with miles

No real extra Platinum benefits (no waived blackouts, no waived redeposit fees, no extra award availability, no extra upgrade options - except for 2 days earlier)

Continental
best-unlimited domestic upgrade opportunities

worst-by far the HoKeY Fare rule on international BF upgrade. plus their inflexible BF award booking even for their top tier members.

BA con: large difference in international rules, regulations and perks. No official upgrade perks.

Ba pro: OW, excellent lounge network, customer service.

CO BEST: Unlimited domestic upgrades at any fare--especially for top tier OP members.

CO WORST http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gifWell I'll probably ruffle a few feathers, but) I can actually live with the HoKY fares, but what irks me the most is paying the higher fare and still being subject to the 30 day roulette rule (on European flights). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif


[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 12-07-2001).]

Sorry Dupilicate

[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 12-07-2001).]

DL:

Best - Free CRC access for PM. Free unlimited upgrades for K+ fares for PM. 8 800-mile segment upgrades each 10k flown for GM (as opposed to 4 500-mile upgrades for elites on most other airlines). Free alcohol in the CRC. The delta.com website. The people who work at Special Member Services.

Worst - Inability to upgrade international fares less than M by any means at all. Absolutely the very worst policy DL has and it's won AA a chunk of my business. Inability to upgrade L and U fares domestically. Both of these poor policies are enforced, even when there are open seats in front. Just plain AWFUL. No international upgrades on the day of departure, even if one has paid a quailfying fare. STUPID STUPID STUPID. "Simply Good Business" philosophy, also known as "Simply Driving Loyal Customers Away to Other Carriers who Don't Have Simply Stupid Mindless Policies". Revenue Protection Unit, aka RPU - people who are hired to mind other peoples' business. It shouldn't matter how someone chooses gets from A to B, you should be grateful they selected your airline at all!

I'll keep flying Delta as the employees make up for management's deficiencies, but AA's piece of the Spiff Travel Pie is going to dramatically increase in 2002.

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"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 12-07-2001).]

Continental:

Best - unlimited domestic upgrades. Free booze in the President's Club.

Worst - HoKeY fares. An absolute disgrace. No soup for you, Continental!!! 30-day upgrade rule. Awarding bazillions of OnePass miles and then making people jump through some very seriously stupid hoops to use them any place other than domestically.

Personally, the cons outweigh the pros so badly on this airline that I'll probably never fly them unless drastic changes are made to their program.

------------------
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

AF:
Pro: excellent award availability, great 2 for 1 or redem C for the price of Y promos.

Cons: lousy partners, erratic ground service.

Qualiflyer:
Pro: Miles and any fare code including most OW carriers, upgrade on any fare on CX, good award availability, 24/7 call center in your language

Con: Major airlines are filing under cxhapter 11 (SR, SN)

BA:
Pro: Service, OW lounges (The Wing in HKG), the BA forum on FT, award redemption based on distance.

Cons: Maybe the most complicated program around (mileage accrual in Y only possible in certain fare classes, each of them different depending on the carrier/country you live in etc...), very few promos, no recognition from other OW carriers.

Northwest:

Best - Free booze in the WorldClub. Good domestic upgrade policy. Discounted online mileage redemptions. nwa.com is second only to delta.com.

Worst - terrible international upgrade policy. Only two fare classes upgradable to Europe, not much better to Asia. A horrible, horrible policy designed to create an artificial demand for WBC, similar to what DL and CO try to do with their premium products. No mileage credit for CyberSavers. No mileage, not free = No thanks!

I used to enjoy NW as my #2 carrier to DL. However, as a result of their international upgrade policy and the decision not to award mileage credit for CyberSavers has made me effectively drop them.

------------------
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 12-07-2001).]