I agree, but think it is more about hubs. DTW & MEM are smaller and easier then ORD, DFW, ATL. I live in a city where I have to connect and that is why I fly NW.

What about using ones CO Plat to get possible upgrades, but change FF # to NW at gate or at check-in? I seem to remember someone telling me they did that until they were able to get elite status on NW. Is this still possible?

Also, you might want to check all the reciprocal lounge agreements with Pres. Clubs versus World Clubs. I had a few years where I was a NW elite member, but would get PC memberships. At the time, the PC membership would get me into a few more lounges than the World Club membership would. At the time, I had talked with one of the nice ladies in the DFW lounge and she offered me the same price as if I were a Plat on Continental if I would join up right there with her. ^

One other consideration is the strength of partnerships. If you are stranded somewhere on AA, and seats are available on other airlines how flexible is AA at getting you home?

I've had good experience with NW rebooking on CO to get me home, when all reasonable NW options have been exhausted.

We've booked several RT's to Europe for the two of us in the last couple years:

In the past 6 months, I've snagged MSP-PUS, MSP-PEK, MSP-AMS (for this summer), MSP-HNL, MSP-CVG, MSP-IAH, and MSP-SFO. All at standard "PerkSaver" levels.

If you can't redeem awards on NW or their partners, you're not trying hard enough.

A couple of additional tidbits
 

I have Gold Elite on CO and get privilges on NWA. I don't know how far those privileges extend becasue I avoid NWA like the plague due to the second tidbit that was alluded to - most of the flights that I would take are on those outrageously crappy CRJ's. There's literally not a good seat on the plane. EXIT row is no different than any other deat (although one FA claimed an extra inch). The seats are so tight (in both dimensions) that the shortest flights are extremely uncomortable. I get back problems every time I fly one of those things.

As for miles, I just used CO niles to send my daughter to Paris for a week. The CO site showed me NWA flights as well as CO flights, which were comparable or better, so the miles seem to be pretty to use. I almost went with an NWA flight till I noticed NO MEAL over the Atlantic (CO fed them).

On Being Stranded...
 

And I just noticed the other question. I fly to Greenville, SC a lot. A small facility that flies mostly RJ's. The smallest weather hiccup makes this place operate like Newark (cancellations and delays and delays and delays). Whenever I have problems with a flight on AA, they'll stick me on any available flight on any available airline. No one else does this for me. That's one reason I stick with AA whenever I can. They know the importance of getting me home at the end of the week.

Are there really no meals on TATL fligts these days? That can't be. NW has a deal with KL that they have to live up to... (That's why the wine is free...)

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To the OP: just stick with your CO status. On NW, it'll be almost as good as NW Plat, and you'll get to keep your miles in one place.

Fon't waste a status match on something that you know is temporary. You never know - someday you might REALLY need NW status, so you don't want to burn the one-time option when you don't have to.

Of course there are meals on NW TATL flights.

I think there is some trouble on CO web site and it is not showing the meal info correctly. I crossed Atlantic 50+ times on NWA and I was always served food.

CO uses far more RJs than NW, and CO's ERJ is even worse than CRJ - Narrower/lower tube and 1-2 seating :mad: .

Forgot to mention that I only book awards in C. If you're cool with Y, I'm sure it's not too big of a deal. :)

*blink* :eek:

CO Gold is almost as good as NW Plat? Since when?

Funny. The only time I really ever run into difficulty finding awards is when I will only fly Y. I have almost no problems finding C awards when searching. I guess YMMV...

Based on the OP's post quoted above, I believe notsosmart was comparing CO Plat to NW Plat.

Er...nevermind. notsosmart's post was slightly ambiguous when I read it, but now I see what they meant.

I will add that nwa.com is slightly better than aa.com in terms of features and reliability (ie: search for awards to partners, search for flighs using miles to upgrade, int'l segments, etc.) I've booked awards flying DL, CO & AS metal or combos w/ NW metal using my WP miles and nwa.com.

I like AA.com, but find it annoying that I can't search for segments past LGW or MAD that would be on Iberia or BA. You can't search for milage based upgrade flights (and for the freakin' $250+ co-pay you'd think they'd offer some nify features!)