My husband and I are considering joining either the CRC, PC, or WC. I had thought that since he was a NW silver, the pricing would definitely be the best on NW. I was shocked to find out that this is not necessarily the case.

CO and DL's pricing for spouses to join at the non-elite level are both lower than NW's price for spouses to join at the elite level.

NW: Silver Elite -- $ 350 + $230 for spouse = $580.
DL: Base -- $400 or 70,000 miles individual/$550 or 90,000 miles with spouse (+ $50/10,000 mile initiation fee --> total in Year 1 = $600, but cheaper thereafter)
CO: Base -- $ 375/$560 with spouse (+ $50 initiation fee --> $610 in year 1 but cheaper thereafter).

So it seems to me that based on these comparisons if we decided to make me a member (which we haven't yet decided since my husband definitely flies more than I do but lately I've been doing a lot of personal travel on my own), then clearly DL is a better deal for us than getting a membership with the airline on which we have status. I know they don't do it frequently, but I might even consider a status match to get the even more preferential price at the Silver level to DL and avoid the $50 initiation fee as well

Since use of all of these lounges is essentially interchangeable at this point, what's the benefit of joining WC when all it will do is cost more??

if you are looking into something in the $600 region per year anyway , you should also consider Priority pass, I believe there are some $300 promos out there and you will get many more lounges.

DL is unlikely to give you a status match, although I suspect it has happened before with NW. Since status matches are supposedly a 1x deal, I'm not sure I'd waste it to save $30 on a club membership, unless you plan on flying them.

One thing NW offers is a mileage bonus, depending on the term of membership:
http://nwa.com/features/wcwb6/
You'll also get points credited to the 100,000 dash program.
http://www.nwa.com/offers/dash/

The miles are helpful, but I'm guessing that we'd get miles on DL too (and while we aren't currently accruing DL miles, my husband and I each have a significant bank of htem).

Bottom line is that I just can't figure out why NW really doesn't give its elite members a break for something that now is definitely a 100% comparable product.

But they do, and you realize this because you quoted the price above. They give the elite members a break at each elite tier. My 1-year membership from NW will cost $250, significantly cheaper than all competing options. Why? Because I'm elite.

So the WC international affiliated lounges seem to be the most extensive compared to CRC and PC so you have more access to international lounges.

Another thought is to get a Biz AMEX Plat $300 annual fee + $150 for the add'l card. It get you into each club when traveling the respective airline. HOwever, if flying say NW at IAH, you don't get access to the PC. With a regular membership you would have gotten in though.

I'd go with the WC membership

Don't forget the double miles for 60 days deal:
http://nwa.com/features/espr6/

RewardsDB.com has a paid lounge program comparison table in the traveller information section that you might find interesting. I would definitely suggest CO or NW over DL because of the increased lounge access and the fact that the CO/NW deal is less restrictive between the two than from either to DL.

If you are doing a one or two year membership, I would go with WC because it has the most liberal reciprocal club relationships. At the same time, as part of its bankruptcy process, NWA seems to believe that customers will not pay more for a full service product and that it must restructure itself to compete on price alone. CO believes that a customers will pay more for a premium product. If I were commiting for longer than 2 years, I think that the PC is less likely to negatively change and more likely to receive increased investment.

I have Priority Pass and use it. There are three membership levels. Most of the time, you can find special enrollment offers. However, Priority Pass does not have lounges at SLC or CVG. Additionally, unless there are airside connectors, reaching a Priority Pass Lounge on another concourse or in another terminal is near impossible these days.

For information go to http://www.prioritypass.com. If you need more information, please ask.

That goes for pretty much every lounge membership nowadays. I found PP to have sufficient lounges at most airports (I agree there are some blank sports and I am shocked there is no lounge at SLC, CVG (I think all CO and NW lounges are included)).

Call me crazy, but I seem to think that these benefits should extend to people wanting to pay for spouse memberships as well. Why? Because I rarely actually need the membership. I'm not elite, and I do most of my traveling with my husband, meaning if he's just a member, I can get in anyway. It doesn't cost them much to offer me this service independently, which even at the non-elite levels the other sky team carriers are realizing.

Is this outside the US carriers? DL, CO, NW all have reciprocal with each other, I believe, which is what has me so flabergasted by this change. I should note that we do very little international travel -- at most two trips per year, and one of those is usually to Canada