I am currently Gold with China Airlines (lowest tier) and am thinking if I should switch to Delta for FFP since now China Airlines is with Skyteam.

Travel mostly involve Transpacific between US, Taiwan, and China. About 3 to 4 times a year on the long haul and may be in Business and 6 to 8 times within East Asia. Occasionally random flights within the U.S. may be flown, but not much. Converting to miles would be at least 45,000 miles flown, average about 65,000 miles flown, and maybe 85,000 miles (counting the class bonuses if it's in Business).

Most if not all of these flights are on China Airlines (or DL codesharing it) so I am wondering if I should stick with China Airlines or move to Delta. The only thing I feel that's good staying with China Airlines is the award availabilities are better and I get lounge access already as Gold when flying CI.

If I try to make Emerald this year with it's discounts in qualifications, the only thing I feel DL may be better would be cheaper award miles, miles that never expire, and bonus miles. Is there another FFP option that's better than DL in this case?

- Lounge access is important
- Upgrades is somewhat important, but award tickets are okay as well

Any thoughts?

Czech Airlines OK Club has a similar redemption chart to Delta, and they will status match you. Only catch: you have to fly with them at least once to get the status match (see http://usa.czechairlines.com/en/port...card_match.htm).

You can earn "Titanium" status with Vietnam Airlines after 15K miles, which is equivalent to SkyTeam Gold with other SkyTeam airlines. However, the redemption chart isn't very good.

Most other SkyTeam airlines either use Flying Blue as their frequent flier program (bad award chart and absurd fuel surcharges for awards, you may as well buy a ticket) or have terrible redemption charts (see Korean Airlines SkyPass for a representative example). Also keep in mind that Delta award tickets don't have fuel surcharges (and this often carries over to partner awards), while many other airlines do. I'm not sure about Vietnam Airlines or Czech Airlines, their Web sites don't say.

The downside with Delta is that irrespective of the award chart, an award actually has to be available in order for you to redeem it. I usually redeem my Delta miles for tickets on Air France or Alaska Airlines - their award availability is reasonably good. However, when I redeem miles, I'm redeeming a single seat in economy to the most remote place I can go (I've taken award trips to Adak, Barrow, Cayenne and Koror among other places). As long as you're going somewhere most people have never heard of in Y class and you're willing to take a flight with 4 stops (in Miami, Port au Prince, Guadaloupe and Martinique) you can probably find an award ticket.

Coolfish, I'm in virtually the same boat as you and struggle with the same dilemma. Even my travel pattern is similar: 3~4x per year TPAC, plus undeterminable amount of intra-Asia trips. Main difference is that I don't get to fly paid business class.

I used to do all my long-haul travel on CI, but since CI joined ST, I'm opening up my routings to ST partners... but still contemplating what FFP to pool miles in. However, the only viable alternative to me is DL, which is the sole US-based SkyTeam FFP. (The only other ST FFP I'd consider is CZ.) Here's my take on your (and my) situation:

Status
I imagine the goal is to have ST+ Elite status so you can get lounge and other benefits throughout the alliance. ST+ is achieved at CI Emerald, which, with your travel pattern, will be difficult to maintain (110k). The current promo brings down the qualification to 70k miles, which helps, but is still more than the 50k needed for DL Gold. Under such circumstances: only prioritizing achieving status and given the current CI promo, if you need <50k miles to achieve CI Emerald (and can complete this by 2012/9/30), then it may make sense to go with CI. Otherwise, it may even make sense to start fresh and pool miles with DL.

Award Redemption
Travel between US-Taiwan/China = US-North Asia redemption. As you mentioned, DL has cheaper award redemptions: non-CI ST partner Y-class R/T costs DL 70k or CI 110k... even a redeeming on CI with CI miles will cost 100k. DL seems more advantageous here.

All in all, I personally am leaning toward pooling with DL:

• I will not be able to hit CI Emerald even with the current promo; furthermore, I will never be able to maintain CI Emerald's 110k renewal requirement. Hence, I might as well give up going for ST+ and just go for DL's easier-to-achieve-than-CI Gold FO tier.
• With status out of the picture, my goal is more in line with an earn-and-burn setup. With DL's award redemption being substantially cheaper, it only makes sense to pool with DL.
• DL is a AMEX MR transfer partner, which is a huge miles-generating avenue.

Suggestion:
Since you mentioned that lounge access is important, have you considered getting the AMEX Platinum card? You get the MR-SkyMiles transfer route plus Priority Pass. While PP may not be the same as having ST+, I believe it covers more airports overall.

+1 Agree with Henry82 on the suggestion to get an AMEX Plat Card. Other than the lounge access of DL, AA, US Airways, it comes with Priority Pass Select for select lounges across the world and Global Entry program which may be useful on your trips back to the U.S. from abroad because you get to go through a special shorter line at the Border Protection. These are just couple of benefits offered by AMEX Plat.

As for DL, although mileage may be lower than CI, but to get seats at the lowest rate of 25,000 RT for the 48 contiguous states is quite hard. I really dislike DL because I beleive DL always devalues its miles but I'm stuck with a DL hub at where I live. Since DL revamped their mileage rates a few years ago, many of the routes I've searched have been min. of 40,000 miles per RT within the 48 contiguous states...Maybe I was only looking at high seasons to these destinations.

As for AMEX Plat., they are running a 50K bonus if you sign-up via a member's referral. Otherwise the bonus is usually lower (25K-30K) if you sign up via the AMEX website. I would be happy to provide the referral if you're interested. Please PM me with your name and email address.