These statistics are based on extremely small samples of data. Take United's award success ratio: September 2002, 95%; October 2002, 0%. As an overall measure of upgrade or award availability, I think they are rendered useless by lack of data.

I don't miss DL at all! I acutally drove from GNV to JAX to fly WN this past weekend as WN was nonstop and DL was a change in ATL and with ASA. I landed in a good mood for both portions of the trip - that would have been iffy on ASA.

I was a die hard DL fan, they spent a lot of management fees figuring out how to run me away.

I was comped to GM in Delta at the beginning of this uear based on my relocation to SLC. I was previously a UA PremEx for 3 years and a long-time United flyer before that (lots of cheap trips to HKG when I was a kid...just don't have the 80,000 miles from that in my lifetime account...another story)

I flew DL for 17,000 miles domestically and I ended up switching to UA again (based on relocation away from SLC).

I have no regrets. The upgrade policy left me with a whole bunch of certs stranded and the same for the other 4 GM Delta fliers in my SLC office. What good does it do you that you get 8 certs (800 miles each) at a whack when they never do any good. One of my team ended up 41/56 certs last year. That was my biggest beef. The service was as good/bad as UA but I definitely prefer UA EconPlus on UA.

Hope this helps.

Did you also notice there appears to be a marginal upgrade success rate on SouthWest. How's that possible?

I,too,am planning to move from Delta. As an ATL traveler,it's not an easy decision. It's mentioned here that AA will comp. I thought they no longer were doing more than a challenge.

My personal experience, confirmed by anecdotal evidence, is that AA will comp from UA but not from DL.

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StuckWithDelta

That makes no sense, why would they care what airline you are coming from? By the sounds of it, if I can do at least the challenge, AA is going to be the way to go.

AA will NOT match status, they will give you a challenge... Had a CP from US call recently and they offerred him the following:

Fly 5,000 miles in 3 months and get gold status.

US and Continental will match status

AA will match status, it all depends on how much you spend and how you go about it.

AA comped me from DL. (Granted, it was 1999. Things may have changed since.) They gave me equivalent status: Platinum for GM.

With apologies to those who have read this suggestion in other places, if you have a travel agent or corporate travel coordinator, ask him/her to take up your case with his/her AA sales rep. They have a lot more leverage than you do as an individual.

If you can't do this, and AA suggests a Challenge, say you know about it but you've moved, or whatever, and really want a status match. If they resist, don't push to where they make a note in your file. Hang up and call back for another rep.

Airline policies don't have to make sense. I called AA on three different occasions asking for a comp to my Delta status and was told: "We don't have automatic status matching for Delta customers". Then I called twice posing as a UA PE and was told both times: "Sure, just fax in your credentials and we'll match your status".

BTW, the Challenges are open to anyone so AA is not granting you any special favors by allowing you to participate.

Having said all that, I'm sure DL elites can get comped on AA, but it is not automatic and takes some additional "juice".

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StuckWithDelta

One more 18 year DL flyer happy with move to AA. GM to PLT.

Just tried (for the 6th time this week) to book WAS-SIN in F on an award with DL using SQ. No dice. Then found out about the so-called Skyteam Awards. T340 at 130,000 miles is supposedly good for travel from N America to SE Asia. Called and asked about booking AF. Oh no, AF does not participate. If you want to do AF, you have to buy 2 awards, 1 to Paris and the second beyond Paris. Total something like 220,000. DL doesn't even bother to provide a footnote in their award chart for the T340 explaining not available on AF. I mentioned this to the DL agent and she said of course, you need to call them to find that out. Skyteam may want to check Webster's for the definition of "team."

I have no regrets leaving Delta. I have been trying to burn Delta miles for the last several years. "D I flew them last summer because I got LAX-MKE for $99RT & to keep my miles active. Again, no regrets on leaving DL.

Truthfully,

Having been being Platinum for three years, I do miss sitting around in the Crown Room drinking myself silly on Maker's Mark.