http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...ES07/805010367

Frequent flier program: The Delta Sky Miles frequent flier program "in all likelihood" will be the surviving program, Anderson said, although details are not worked out. Northwest's WorldPerks miles would transfer to the new program.

Time to burn. If CO stays in ST, seriously considering going to CO. If not... later, y'all...

Steve B.

As someone who willingly left CO, I do not think that CO is a better option than DL.

- Upgrades are notoriously hard to snag.
- Redemptions are notoriously difficult; I almost always have to take a partner for at least some legs. Plat does not seem to help much, if at all.
- The 50% EQM thing means that you are stuck flying CO (=31" pitch and hard seats) or paying a premium. A large number of business travelers are flat-out shafted, as even CO tickets booked through TAs get the 50% treatment.
- Lack of flexibility during irregular ops is widely acknowledged, even by some ardent supporters.
- An EWR hub that is worse than ATL, with employees widely seen as surly and unhelpful.
- No PMUs of any kind.
- No MM program, though one is supposedly coming.
- No plans to upgrade their J product until, at least 2010, when the first 787 comes.
- TATL 752s are no fun.
- Phone agents are often woefully uninformed. Booking reward tickets can be a nightmare, unless you really know your stuff.

So, unless you really love airline food, or really like the idea of VS or EK redemptions, then I'm not sure that CO is all that.

If you travel in paid premium classes, though, I would agree that CO is great for domestic F, but as long as they are in ST, I'm not sure it makes much difference which program you accrue in.

Of course, many of the points above apply to DL, but many don't, so I think DL wins on the whole.

We've already booked 3 trips (6 tickets total) on UA for this summer.

Come on, guys, you can't it have both ways.

Of course they'll be "good". Everything is devalued, but a penny is still good for something, I think ....

Santa Claus is coming to town ....

I am underwhelmed by this reassurance.

Thanks to the OP for posting a link to Anderson's public statements on this, but people really can't be surprised at the name: if they're keeping the DL brand, of course they're keeping SkyMiles.

As for blowing through all one's NW miles, you're inferring that DL will keep all the rules & features that make you dislike SkyMiles vis-a-vis WorldPerks. Given persistent, industry-wide devaluations of miles and of the flying experience in general, it's tough to make a case for hoarding miles in any program. If there's some place you want to go, go: just be sure to maintain enough paid travel to sustain elite status if you perceive an ongoing value.

Yes, but DL SM is going downhill at a much faster clip than anyone else. It is absolutely the worst domestic airline to have miles on.

It could be worse - DL could offer 2 WP miles for 1 Skymile

Ha! That's a good one...just like they could offer 2x EQM to their elites and not to... oh...wait...

I disagree. I do not think it any worse than CO or NW. However, I think that all of the ST airlines are weak on the redemption side, with lousy availability and expensive international upgrades. But, they also tend to give away miles more readily, so it might be a wash.

As for going downhill at a faster rate... I think they will all be at the Euro level within a year or two, so I am not going to sweat over whether DL gets there 6 months ahead of everyone else.

The one strategy I do advocate, however, is to use up the status matches now. There is no guarantee that status will amount to a hill of beans in a devalued world, so might as well get in while the getting is good (or at least decent) and not worry about whether the matches are "once-in-a-lifetime".

My reaction is different, it's time to set up a Delta Sky Miles account and let the miles in it start building up for those cases where you can do something and get more miles from that program than from WorldPerks -- a good example is the stay with Hilton for two nights and get 2000 miles, rather than 500.

Bob H

I may have missed something in reading through the posts/links, however its not clear if Anderson et. all are saying they will keep the Skymiles brand and name along with the actual program rules/content, or, wishfull thinking, take a best of both WP and SM and apply the Skymiles branding to it.

Here's to hoping that its only a branding name retention and that the combined or new program is an enhanced program.

-H

LOL!!! So true, so true...

(Then I realized it's not a joke - this is exactly what Delta is doing to us WP elites. )

I highly doubt that DL is undertaking some sort of nefarious plot to ensure that there are more DL elites than NW elites entering the merger. It is just too ridiculous to be true. Besides, one can't have it both ways. Everyone here seems to think that DL treats their elites like garbage, but they are going to go out of their way to protect them?

The much more realistic rationale is that DL is seeking to increase bookings during a period of softening demand. It is a marketing gambit, pure and simple. And it has the added benefit of not really costing DL that much, as many of the perks of being elite have fixed costs.

So we go to Skymiles but do we get to keep our WP # or do I have to learn a new FF#??

That would be sad, I even have a low 9 digit number

I still remember my SM number from my old, old PM days.

I've always had the burn em up attitude towards miles.

Actually, this year I found myself wanting to use miles and, gasp, I didn't have enough, even though I've earned over 1M WP miles in the past 2.5 years. Of course, I just calculated how long it would take me to earn those miles and waited to book till I actually had them.