Questions and Answers

awesome job with the info that you provide. I’ve been Delta Plat for few years and gold this year with mostly business travel and have been thinking of switching to AA. Do you think it’s a good move given recent devaluation of AA program. I live in NYC so have the choice between Delta, AA and United.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Depends on where you fly to normally and where you would like to redeem your miles

Fly mostly domestic with occasional overseas trip once may be twice a year for business but would like to travel more for leisure using miles. In addition to miles redemption, is the AA elite experience worth the switch or does it make sense to continue tough love with Delta?

I think what you should do is make a list of places you’d want to travel to and pick a couple that is possible in the next year. Then see which alliance best suits your needs – AA for oneworld and Delta for SkyTeam – and choose accordingly.

AA’s program is going revenue based and the new miles earning structure basically matches Delta’s and if you’re not a high spender, you wont be accumulating many miles, especially if you start as a general member with AA. You might get a status match and if you do, consider some mileage running before the first half of the year ends since the program is currently still based on miles flown. Also remember, DL’s miles cant be redeemed for First Class at all.

You should also look into Alaska’s Mileage Plan since you can credit AA and DL flights to them, will probably offer a status match with your DL status and has a variety of partners you can redeem for. They also allow one way awards on some partners as well as stopovers. Just know that almost all awards must originate or terminate in North America.

United’s program is also worth mentioning since Star Alliance has a large network of airlines and destinations and their routing rules are very generous as well.

Thanks David. Some good options to think about.