Changing from CO to Delta or Alaska...Input?
 

Currently, I'm a very unhappy CO Gold elite member. I'm more than little sick of CO screwing me out of 50% of the EQM's for booking through a travel agent and really hate that their fees are now the highest in the industry. I guess Larry needs more money to make his teeth bigger, but I digress.

I fly out of SEA, so I'm looking to change to either Alaska's program or Delta. My ideal would be NW's program, but sadly it's going away. I mostly fly on AS with occasional international trips or a trip to the east coast. There will be generally one long trip to the east coast on CO and I have no choice about this.

Most my flights are around the Pacific coast of the US and by flight frequency I fly AS 80% of the time. Delta and AS have announced reciprocal upgrades. I'm thinking that each program's gold members will be upgraded after the other's. By going with AS, I would get upgraded on them a lot and occasionally on DL and vice versa.

My two options are:

Delta
- Better international presence
- Platinum status
- Lounge membership that is valid anywhere I will fly
- Future reciprocal upgrades announced, but not sure what they will be

Alaska
- Upgraded more frequently
- Will be able to get points from CO flight and probably use CO lounge in such cases
- International lounges may not be an option
- Recriprocal upgrades on DL
- Can fly on AS, DL, CO and AA

I'm leaning towards AS and want to status match right away, but I don't have complete information around the upgrades. Anyone have any input?

I think if you cruise the NW board you will find plenty of WorldPerks members who are doing the opposite -- e.g. thinking of a switch to CO because they don't like the look of the post-merger DL program... higher fees, devalued miles, more restrictions. As a former CO plat flying out of SEA I know how hard it is to accomplish that while based in this marginal station for Continental, and SEA-EWR and SEA-IAH are two tough upgrade routes. If i were you I would transition to AS for awhile and watch the trends. Maybe DL SkyMiles won't come out as terrible as people predict, but it sure looks bleak, and as a recent NW elite I'll probably circle back to AS, CO or UA myself.

FYI, any change to a reward ticket on co.com or with an agent is $150 and booking 4 days before you leave is $75. The Elite access now means that it's priced as such. Good advice, but I'm leaving CO regardless. It's only a matter of time until they're just like UA. No upgrades and not even a free drink in the President's Club.

The problem with crediting CO miles to DL is that you will lose any chance of CO upgrades. EWR is so far from SEA.

I had never heard of the DL-AS reciprocol upgrades. Can someone post a link?

At least for this year, I'll be gold on CO and will be able to pick an exit. That said, if I went with DL and actually purchased the CO ticket instead of using CO miles, then I'd basically lose the points, or strand them in a CO account.

Basically this is a program yet to be implemented. Its supposed to be similar to the one AS & NW currently have... (partner elites ug'd after all of primary carrier's elite's ug'd)...

There was a thread in the AS forum... but this has not been implemented yet (only announced) so almost exciting :p

As far as SEA-EWR... AS does fly this route too, and although its difficult to UG on that route, I've done it before... so it's possible :D

I'd pick AS. DL's fees are actually worse than CO's for reward travel, IMO. And AS has more partners and a broader variety for reward redemption.

I would pick Alaska out of Seattle. Wider partnership options, lower fees, better service, and better upgrade chances.

if you're mostly flying up-and-down the coast, there's really no question--go w/AS. DL just doesn't have a lot of presence north/south, so you'll end up on AS anyway.