KaizerWilhelm

X Post with Delta Forum
Maybe this is the right place put it maybe it's not, so here goes.

• Currently a United Member with 500k lifetime miles.
• Currently Platinum but only qualified for Silver for 2024.
• Seattle Based
• New job will have me flying across the country a lot (NE, East Coast, Canada, Nor and SoCal), plus my partner lives in Boston and will be making frequent trips there (she's a Delta loyalist).
• Trying to decide if I stick with United this year or switch to Delta to align with my partner and make the cross country flights nonstop and easy, vs multi-stop on United. Any advice appreciated!

AugustusM

How many miles do you think you'll roughly do this year?

ty97

The miles questions may not be all the important in this equation. DL has gone 100% spend based for next year (no MQM, no segments. Just MQD.)

JimInOhio

The more you fly, the more you value nonstops. Is there an opportunity for a status match?

AugustusM

I was thinking more for the lifetime angle.

halls120

It depends on your goal. If you are reaching for lifetime on United, then stick with United. If you want a wide variety of flights out of SEA then I think Delta is a better bet.

radonc1

How important is your partner to you

Kacee

If I were SEA based, my primary airline would be AS or DL. I would take a close look at AS in particular; with the AA partnership, you have lots of nonstops and earn/burn opportunities.

UA would be my 4th or 5th choice.

halls120

once I finish burning my stock of DL miles, I will definitely consider AS. Over the last year I�ve flown five round trips � three on Delta, one on Lufthansa and one on United. I suspect United is going to get a zero for this next year unless things change.

ty97

I'm curious what the pricing on UA is out of SEA vs DL/AS who have hubs there. If UA is noticeably cheaper, I might suggest staying with them. If prices are comparable, then yeah, go with the airline that has non-stops to where you are flying.

gaobest

I would switch to DL for the nonstops. The UA lifetime mileage stat won�t get lost if you�re not flying UA. I have 660k lifetime UA and I rarely fly UA since going from 1P to GM in 2015/2016. I value nonstops and having endured recent MX on 787, I�m glad that I wasn�t depending on a connection.

Polytonic

In all honesty, I think for most people living at an airline hub flying on their own dime, the best airline is likely whoever has hub dominance, and it's clearly AS at SEA.

I could see an argument for DL if work is paying for the flights as MQD becomes less of an issue. I believe 321neos are on SEA-BOS so the actual hard product is pretty good compared to AS.

With lots of TCON flying, AS 75/100K becomes trivially easy to earn. I could probably hit it by August or September doing 1xTCON a week if I focused on AS exclusively.

DL pricing is not always competitive ex-SEA, especially to the east coast. Booking close-in, it's often a hundred or more compared to UA or AS. B6 is often very affordable to BOS/JFK as well, but they don't have a very reliable operation.

In my experience, UA is by far the cheapest when booking in advance ($30-40 less each way), especially if your final destination is a UA hub. I spend a lot of time going back and forth to WAS/NYC and UA has the best schedule (for me, e.g. only UA operates Tue/Wed redeyes to NYC)

I don't think upgrades on AS out of Seattle are as plentiful as some people make them out to be. My MVP Gold/75K friends (mostly headed to Chicago and California) don't clear very often. I imagine upgrades are much more plentiful ex-SFO if you're willing to add a connection.

cfischer

I would get a status match now that you still have UA Plat. AS route network could be a concern - Boston is not a problem, but check some of your other destinations. If Skypesos are not an issue for you then DL might be a good airline to consider. AS is not bad, but not there are some major devaluations w/ partner awards coming ... so YMMV.

Dublin_rfk

Align with partner and go Delta. Long term status will happen or not it’s really not worth chasing.

sinoflyer

If we project to the long term, it might be worthwhile to stick it out and reach 1MM for the lifetime *G status for you and spouse/partner. I'm a proponent of having multiple elite statuses under one roof, and this can ostensibly cut your effort by half. Being 1MM is great. For one, it has freed me to experience many other airlines (in particular, pursue OW Emerald via AA/AS). After making 1MM around 2013, I have added only ~60,000 miles on UA. And I can't be happier.