Hi all,

I recently started flying occasionally and am trying to decide on the best FF program. I live in Los Angeles and LAX is easiest airport for me to get to. Almost all of my travel will be personal, flying for the lowest price I can get. I am interested in both award tickets and elite status, though I doubt I'll be able to do more than 25k per year (even if that). I know I'll be flying to NYC at least two times per year and preferably to EWR. There are usually good, direct flights on Continental, but I've heard bad things about award tickets through Continental. Otherwise, I'll just be flying wherever my girlfriend and I want to go for as cheap as possible and since there's a decent ST presence at LAX, I'll probably use them at least part of the time. I'm wondering if anyone can give some advice on which program to go with.

Thanks,
David

The SkyTeam presence is actually pretty limited. CO only flies to HNL (soon to be down-guaged to a 757), CLE, IAH and EWR; I'm pretty sure that they killed their LAX-Mexico mini-hub operation on ERJs, though maybe not. NW flies to HNL, MSP and DTW (and maybe MEM). DL is building up, but isn't all that impressive overall, as most of the flights are on ERJs or via SLC, CVG or ATL. There are a couple transcons a day, too.

If you fly the non-AA codeshares on Alaska you can credit to CO or NW and get EQMs, but there are a large number of AS flights that are actually AA operated, so you have to be careful there. UA and AA have a much stronger presence in LAX and may serve you better, both for transcons and north/south runs out west.

If you are going to pick a SkyTeam partner out there I'd go with NW. CO will honor the elite status same as their own, and NW has more partners and earnings bonus options.

S.

I'm at LAX and a NW plat elite.

Skyteam is a decent choice since AF, AM, NW, CO, DL, KL, KE, Copa, all have flights, plus AS is in bed with most of the airlines...

NW flies to LAS, NRT, HNL, MSP, MEM, DTW, MKE, IND nonstop.
CO flies to HNL, IAH, EWR, CLE
DL flies to CVG, ATL, SLC, SFO, LAS, OGG, AGE, BOG, BOS, CUN, DEN, CUL, FLL, FAT, GDL, GUA, BDL, HMO, HNL, ZIH, LAP, BJX, LIR, LTO, LMM, MJA, ZLO, MEX, MTZ, MRY, MSY, JFK, OAK, MCO, PHX, PDX, PVR, RDU, SMF, SEA, GEG, TPA, SJO, TRC, SBP, SBA, TUS, ICT, ZCL, SEA
AF CDG, PPT
KL AMS
AS all over the place including DCA, Mexico and up the West Coast.

So I'd pick the airline that you'd fly most. All NW CO DL have free space available upgrades for it's elites. CO/NW give each others elites upgrades for free as well. CO only gives 50% elite miles to cheap tickets on NW/DL and CO you have book at co.com to get 100% on cheap tickets.

To add to above, AF will fly direct to LHR from 1st April. This is also available as a DL codeshare.

While its true that NW, CO, and DL give free upgrades, the OP mentioned they will make silver at best. Out of LAX I don't think too many upgrades are going to come their way, especially on the DL or CO transcons.

Since you won't get upgrades on transcons as a silver in any of the skyteam programs the you might go with DL or NW for the fact that they let all elite levels choose exit row seats at booking while CO reserves that privilege for Gold and Platinum elites only.

If you're going to mix your skyteam flying and just credit to one program then I'd also avoid CO. CO has a 50% EQM penalty for cheap tix on NW and DL both. NW and DL reciprocate this same penalty if you fly a cheap ticket on CO if you are crediting to their program. You don't have that penalty if you're using either DL or NW and flying the other, its just with CO.

As for award availability, it will depend on where you want to go with your miles. DL has miserable availability domestically, but pretty decent partner availability internationally. NW is a little weaker with some partners. I don't think CO availability is too bad, though some others may disagree.

I think in your case I might also consider using Flying Blue. As a US resident you'd give up the free upgrades but its one of the few programs that allows you to get award tickets in international first class. There is no mileage penalty on CO or DL. The only fare class that has doesn't earn full miles on NW is V, which is used as one of the cheaper fare classes for international fights. NW K and T classes do get full miles which are usually the cheapest 2 classes both domestically and internationally. AS flights can also be credited to Flying Blue in addition to NW and CO (mentioned above)

SU also flies to SVO (Moscow) from LAX.

Also, you do not loose free upgrade benefits if you go with Flying Blue. As an FB Elite you will be upgraded on NW at the same time as NW and CO Elites would, the process works the same as for NW Elites.

In the Flying Blue member guide it says that US based members do not get NW upgrades. Maybe in practice this isn't enforced, but that's what it shows in the website.

No, it's not.

Anyway your resident status for FB is defined by the address you supply them with. Anywhere outside of the US and Mexico is good as FB Gold status (40K miles a year) makes you SkyTeam Elite Plus. Just make sure it's not a French address -- status thresholds are higher for French residents

Thank for everyone who's posted replies. I apologize for forgetting about this thread a bit.

Regarding LAX: You're right that's its not the best airport for SkyTeam. But, I seem to be liking United less and less while AA is often (but not always) more expensive. From what I've read, SkyTeam seems to be the best for lower-level members since upgrades are possible while lower-level *A and OW members don't really get any.

I think I'm going to go with Flying Blue. It has a couple of benefits. First, the NW domestic upgrades (the website does not exclude USA residents). Second, there's the 100% CO miles which will let me take the LAX-EWR nonstop without worrying about miles. Finally, the best I could do for Elite+ in the US is 75k. Flying Blue is still less at 70k. Not that I'll make it anytime soon, but it'll always be there in the future.

Thanks for the help,
David

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

One other consideration to toss out there is fuel surcharges. Specifically, US-based carriers cannot charge them on award itineraries. Most other carriers do. Considering that the surcharge can be several hundred dollars, and that airlines are moving towards using surcharges rather than base fares as their main approach to increasing fares this may prove to be a very costly decision in the long run.

Just some food for thought.

S.

Sigh. OK, back to the drawing board. In that case I think I'm going to switch back to NW or DL and deal with the 50% loss on CO tickets. Almost definitely not CO due to the 50% for all discount tickets. In terms of international award availability (probably Australia/NZ, Asia, or South America in the next couple of years), which is better, DL or NW? I'd prefer to get enough miles for business class, but coach is not the end of the world. I've also heard DL is devaluing their program fairly aggressively. Should I keep this in mind at all?

Thanks,
David

I would say look at where you would fly the most. If you're flying on CO and book through their website,you still get 100% EQM even on the cheap classes.

The caveat is that there is talk of a DL-NW & UA-CO merger. Don't quite know how that will affect you but just food for thought

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

NW has almost zero flights to S. America. From LAX you can use Copa and connect in PTY for most destinations. It is on a 737, with domestic F seats, but the flights are eligible for free upgrades (EUA) for NW & CO elites.

S.

DL has pretty good award opportunities with partner airlines. One of those is SQ. If you're going to Asia, SQ has flights from LAX to Tokyo, Taipei, and Singapore, plus they fly from SFO to Seoul and HKG. And you can connect in SIN to AKL, CHC, and most major airports in Australia. And, of course, SQ has the best service on the planet. With the large number of domestic and international flights on DL ex-LAX, I think you're best off accumulating your miles as DL Skymiles.