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

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

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.