Hi Everyone,

Our local airports are serviced by US Air and Delta. Which airline has the best FF plan? We have always used US Air, but now that Delta has arrived we were wondering if Delta might have a better plan. We fly 4 or 5 times a year and with US Air we usually build up enough points to fly free once a year.

I personally like flying delta better, but the US mileage program is better than delta program. If you don't care between the two qualities, go for US.

The *Alliance (US&UA) is far better than Skyteam (DL/CO/NW). Plus, you will never be able to use your Delta miles for a saver ticket to anywhere decent. If you want an unbiased (!) persepctive, check out www.deltasucks.com.

Where do you typically fly? In NC i'm guessing you would mostly have to connect in CLT on US or ATL on Delta.

CLT flies many places, but not as many places as ATL.

I've never tried to redeem on US, but on Delta it is ok. You will rarely find the 25k domestic "Sky Saver" tickets. The website will search NW also and I have booked online rewards that way, but don't expect 25k domestic tickets on Delta...

ETA:
Also Delta only does Elite status by miles, but US will do miles or segments. Considering you will most likely have to connect that is in US's favor, but US just got rid of the 500 mile minimum so that cuts into miles earnings.

I like the Delta staff better, but on regional jets you deal with other carriers and they have varying staff attitudes.

Delta doesn't shove credit cards down your throat like US does.

Both airlines have "unlimited" upgrades for elite customers based on status...but you need a plane with a first class cabin to really matter.

I've hardly ever flown either, so I hope you get better-informed responses than what I can offer. But the FlyerTalk wisdom seems to be that Delta is generally a better airline. Part of the answer to your question might involve where you want to fly with the miles you accumulate and whether those destinations are better served by either airline (and their partner airlines).

Just in case you don't get many responses here, you could either simply add a post to this thread asking the Moderator to switch the thread to the Delta forum. Or if you go a few days without good answers, you could re-post on the Delta forum yourself. Posting the same query on two different forums is an FT no-no, but I would think and hope that it would be understandable if your first post doesn't yield good info and your other post might.

May want to check this discussion. I never flew US before, so just posting a friendly link (unbiased )

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=799664

When I lived in CLT I seemed to fly US occasionally, but living in that hub meant sky-high fares that often involved driving to GSO, then connecting back through CLT at half or more off of the CLT origin. I never really had a problem but do recall that some of their F seats weren't much better than coach on the rare times I received BUGs. My last flight was OMA-MCI-CLT-MCO with my son a few years ago because I waited too long and it was the only decent fare. But then I wasn't paying attention and we lost the miles we had accrued; not enough for an award but close enough that an MR couldn't at least top off for a future award ticket.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about DL. They were once a very good airline but their service took a nose dive in the mid-90's and I stopped flying them. When NW joined ST I would use DL as a safety net because I can bank WP miles. Last DL flight was burning the last of my miles to take my boys to HNL in 2006 (I flew on paid ITIN and banked WP miles). I had booked the award travel on a separate PNR but then phoned AND e-mailed to link the records so they would know that two minors were not flying unaccompanied. Well, they screwed that up (and also failed to put my WP number in the record--it defaults to SM and is only ST partner that doesn't let you put another FF program number in the online booking. I then had to fight the battle to have that undone). Then they changed return flight schedule (moved up 55 minutes) without telling us WHILE we were in Hawaii so we ended up just barely missing our flight due to security lines and had to be booked on a later flight. We were able to get out a few hours later but try hanging out at an airport with two younger children and you get the picture...

Well, my new travel buddy and I are on DL PHX-JFK for Soup DO V and they DID link our records and DID put us in exit row seats (based upon my ST elite status) BUT now I have to watch for schedule and equipment changes that DL is notorius for so that we don't lose our desired seats. I don't remember why we booked DL but there was a good reason; probably the non-stop at a nice fare and lack of the learning curve for the two of us flying as a couple.

I realize I may not have answered your original question, but I hope I have painted a clear enough picture to help you sort it out. You will find people that love both airlines and fly them often for whatever reason, be it geography, city pairs frequented, or perceived value. For me, it comes down to maintaining elite on NW so I fall back on DL as ST partner, although I don't enjoy the EUGs that are seamless on CO as if you were on NW. I never fly enough to get to Plat, but you only need 75K versus 100K elsewhere.

Good luck sorting it out.

I would stick within the *A. I also would credit my miles flown on US to UA MP. Just my .02. Welcome to FlyerTalk!


Halothane