I agree with respect to UA and AA, but how does CO do better at 100K than DL in terms of Elite benefits? CO has historically had the weakest top tier program. In addition to poor upgrade delivery, they don't even give their Platinums free standby, and they charge close-in reward fees even to Platinums.

At 100K I think you'd be better off on UA or AA. But if it were DL vs. CO, I think you'd be better off with DL Plat + 25K rollover than 100K on CO.

120K, at least for 2007.

All we got at 90K was a nice pile of miles. We certainly would have latched on to those SWU's if they'd been an option for us.

Well... it all depends on what CO decides to do when they join *A... Scott & Co. Have a good 3-4 months to tweak what they were going to do now that DL has tipped thier hand with Diamond... Could get interesting...

+1 x2. We all knew that the award change takeaway was a mask to giveback at a higher level. There were many other ways to address the abuse issue, but it was clearly a fleece. And yes, worthless PMU's. Don't spin it as a great benefit.

And assuming that we go to the companion program at DL. Best of both, another strike DL.

+1, apparently DL's calculation is that this will help the bottom line - apparently at the cost of some of it's most frequent travelers.

Yes, since I smelled DL in NWA land I'm getting a better and better picture,

I feel the same way, I wasn't happy to see my 2009 perks fleeced when I earned them in 2008 under the terms existing in 2008.

+1 - I feel this resonates with the long-time NW folks.

A fair point, but keep in mind customers are not logical/100% objective, but rather emotional irrational beings. Customers tend to weigh the last experience the most, and with all the fleecing and bogus "enhancements"

Part of the problem is DL is trying to tell us they gave us something, when for the apparent vast majority of people, the thing comes with so many restrictions as to be useless. That goes back to the honesty problem.

Also, NW flyers DID use to have great international mileage upgrade opportunities on B fares. We lost the straight mileage upgrades when DL bumped those fares up to $1k each.

Dishonesty is nothing new. Some airlines are more guilty than others in some areas. Calling every change a benefit is the norm in the industry. Delays are announced incrementally so that a 20 minute delay can turn into a cancellation, often depriving you of other choices you could have made, had the airline been honest from the start.

Talking about honesty, I find it hard to believe that someone can honestly say NW did not give triple EQMs.

Well said. It is all about spin. FT programs are business tools. Nothing more.

The botom line for me is that not matter how the "new" Delta trys to spin the 2010 FF program, as a NW PE I am still behind where I was when Delta took over.
Game is no longer any fun because I hate losing!
Delta not loyal to me =I am not loyal to "new" Delta.

Nobody should be loyal to a FF program. You would be a fool to be loyal. It is a business deal, not a relationship.

If the deal with DL is not good enough for you, move on. As far as I am concerned, my choice of airline in my airport (DL or AA) and distance to hubs (MSP or ORD) are no the reasons I will stick to DL. The FF is never going to be a pivotal factor. Probably the same is true for many of us.utside of hubs the options are very limited.

Yeah, well, we're going for DM -- but only because of the 3x (really 2x) EQM's for a run to Singapore and the 15k EQM giveaway. Domestic upgrades are important to our flying pattern -- but I can't wait for the first post of next year with the heading:

"I'm DIAMOND ELITE and couldn't get the upgrade out of Seattle (Atlanta, where ever.)" ... Who will it be?

That is true. I think the DL computer systems stink, but understand the cost to change over to NWA's was to much. Some things have gone down, some better, and a lot of just the same. Overall if they had not merged where would NWA be now? the question being what would they have cut.

a) Cost was a small factor, it was the imposed "we want ALL integration done by Jan 1" deadline, that was a major factor, and the fact it was going to take that long to fix all the "gaps" between the DL and NW systems... guess how they got around all those gaps? if you don't bring that NW functionality over to DL, it really isn't a "gap"

b) They would be an airline flying people all over the world... US isn't gone, UA isn't gone, if anything they would have BK'd before NW.

c) Maybe a little, maybe alot... but I doubt they would have gutted the frequent flyer program like DL has.

The computer System doesnt stink, It sucks...Ive seen it first hand, its like going back to MS DOS for a NW employee....They tell us that the functionality will improve, but in the mean time...IM ready for alot of frustrations...I can make ANYTHING happen on a NW computer, but the DL model is to transfer to 5 other desks just to reissue a tkt....That might have been the "best of the best" 10 yrs ago!!! (Sorry for that little rant), NW agents have begun training on the DL computers about 2 weeks ago, so the word is getting out quickly just how bad it is...

Thank you for your candidness...

I've seen at least 2 NW agents working at combined stations saying similar things. I'm guessing the DL IT people have the political pull to shove bad systems down everyone's throat on a 'not invented here' mentality.