Does anyone else find the new Delta Elite program a joke? I'm Gold Elite, holding Y class tickets for all segments of an upcoming flight. According to the Gold Elite Benefits, I should be upgraded to First Class "at time of booking". However, the fine print has my least favorite words in the English language "based on availability". So even though there are 10 FC seats open (out of 18) on both of my flights and I'm two days from departure, Delta won't upgrade me because there "are no seats available". I was NW Elite until the merge and have to say that at least we could count on NW to make good on their promised benefits. If you made it to the 5day, 3 day, or 2 day cut off, the upgrades did come through. Not with Delta.

Sighhhhhhhhhh.

I agree TC, I loved NWA compared to Delta. Unfortunately, Delta is the airline that goes to most of the places we travel. I also wish they would go back to NWA website - it is much easier to use than the Delta site.

I am also trapped with Delta. Their website is medieval if not byzantine. I won't even discuss the "three tier" ff availability. There are apparently no "low" seats in the inventory.

When will it be time for you all to switch to AA and OW?
Maybe they will match your status.
Nobody is better with awards and upgrades than AA (OW) - PERIOD.

AA almost never does status matches. They'll have you earn Gold or Platinum status quickly through a challenge whereby you deomonstrate that you'll fly enough to be a regular elite-status passenger. (You're expected to earn status the usual way from then on.)

I agree that AAdvantage is a far superior program in terms of earning and redeeming miles. One thing AA does not do is upgrade you automatically. Gold and Platinum pax have to purchase upgrades with electronic upgrades or miles or copays. If first or biz fly out with empty seats, so be it.

I know some AAdvantage passengers use the derisive term "Sky Pesos" to describe what they see as the worthlessness of Delta's Sky Miles.

I have to add that my success with AA upgrades and mileage redemptions is because of flexibility and because it's just me that I'm concerned about. My work schedule allows me some flexibility in my travel and I'm only trying to get award tickets/upgrades for myself. I'm not in a situation where I need to get my family of four to Hawaii at Christmastime and we want to fly business class and we need to leave on Dec. 23 and return on Jan. 2, or anything like that. Those things make a difference too.

From what I read and hear, I'd still have less luck with Delta than I do with American.

If I lived in a city other than MSP, I'd gladly switch. Unfortunately, Delta has us under lock and key here. The only place I can fly on AA from MSP is to ORD or DWF. As it turned out, I was upgraded on all my flights in the end. I still don't exactly understand how they determine how many seats are "available" for upgrades on each flight. I'm still trying to understand the <i>what trumps what</i> organization of status + fare base. Its all a bit like playing poker.

I agree that the Delta program sucks when compared to NW. Looking for business class seats for a trip to Europe for next year, and finally figured out the system... they seem to mainly have "low" seats available on Tuesday and Thursday, never through JFK, rarely from Atlanta. I was surprised to see some Air France legs available in the online search (that was always the great secret on NW - AF legs didn't show up online, so if you called you could always find something available, even on shorter notice).

tejana, I hope you get the system figured out. It baffles me. Looking for business class FF seats to a couple of destinations for next year. When I ask for one seat the "cost" is 80,000 miles RT, when I ask for 2 seats the cost <u>for both</u> jumps to 100,000 miles each. If I ask for one seat, take it and then ask for another in a seperate record, they are each 80,000 miles again. What's the reasoning behind that? I've found the Delta FF low, med, high availability calendar to be a complete farce. They keep sending emails saying "a change is gonna come". I sure hope it gets here soon, cause this system sucks big time. Why don't they just go back to the old NW system for now? It was so much better. Good luck with your search.

The number of points required now for Delta is a joke. For us to fly to Europe was over 300,000 points to go economy! Plus $300.00 in taxes. Not worth it!

By a way of comparisson, we did this for 100,000 each (200,000 for 2 people) in BUSINESS class on AA RT to Europe and less copay; FIRST class would have been only 250,000 miles! You would have to be foolish to be collecting Sky Pesos.

www.flyertalk.com

Find the Delta forum and "join the whining" You will have pages and pages of friends there... the forum has become nothing but a "NW was better rantfest"

(And there's a REASON NW isn't around anymore)

As to the number of points to go to Europe. just booked two tickets Business Class TYS - FCO and ATL-FCO for 100,000 each.

<i>And there's a REASON NW isn't around anymore</i>

CarolA, The reason NW isn't around anymore is that they merged with Delta. The decision to retain the Delta entity rather than the NW was based completely on union contracts. Delta had no unions for pilots or flight attendants, NW did. By merging into the Delta corporation the airline was able to break all contracts with the unions. It had nothing to do with NW being an inferior airline, as I think you are suggesting. I'm not "whining" about the number of points to fly, I'm frustrated with the way in which the Delta system gives inconsistant information. That's all. NW <u>was</u> better in that regard.

Hmm.... (The fact that they were bleeding red ink had nothing to do with it? Why doesn't Delta have those contracts? And as for "inferior" I have to say, I got on a NW jet the other day and stopped in my tracks. When was the last time they updated those planes.... YUCK!)

I stand by my statement.

And trust me TC there are TONS of folks who will agree with you on flyertalk.com It's a a NW love fest. LOL!

O.K. I'm confused. Why are you so pro-Delta if you stopped in your tracks when boarding one of their planes the other day? There is no longer <u>any</u> NW branding. Its all Delta, all the time. It seems you've jumped on-board the whiners train with your <i>out-dated plane</i> complaint, Carol. LOL!

As for red ink, I live and worked in the NW main hub. Every detail of the NW financials had been front page news here for years and every tiny detail of the merger filled our media. NW was not bleeding red ink at the time of the merger. It was doing as well as any airline (which isn't saying much) but that is why Delta wanted to merge. First it was two big airlines and now its one <u>bigger</u> airline.

The plane was a NW jet that had Delta painted on the side. Inside it was still NW 1970's decor (and you could see the old NW logo LOL!)


As for the rest of it.... whatever!

The NWA and DAL merger was one of simple survival and economics. With a route structure that complimented each other, the merged airline will gain huge benefits. Unfortunately, some of these benefits will initially come at the expense of passengers and employees.

In the end, if the merger works as planned most will benefit. Seemless travel to hundreds of destinations for passengers and job security for employees.

There is no magic here. If a business can "monopolize" it's sector then it can control the market. For example, higher mileage requirement for frequent flier reward redemption or higher ticket prices. Microsoft and others do the same thing.

It seems people have unrealistic expections when it comes to airlines and air travel. This only leads to disappointment for something that can otherwise be a pleasant experience.

www.dmbflyingcoach.blogspot.com

Every merger promises to lower costs, improve services, and save consumers money. The last merger where this happened in reality was the Articles of Confederation.

I have had numerous troubles with the Delta website. The most recent was when I was reserving flights from DTW into Munich and out of Florence. On the return, the only options the website was giving me were layovers in Amsterdam of 24 hours plus! The flight out of FLR leaves very early in the morning, giving plenty of time to hook up to the flights back to DTW, but it wouldn't do it. I ended up having to put in a multi-leg itinerary with Amsterdam in the middle on the return to force it to give me a connection that didn't include an overnight. As I recall, the price was either the same as the two-day trip home, or less. It was so weird that I sent Delta an email about it, but got some sort of canned response explaining I could either call their 800 number to book a ticket or use their website.

My other quibble is that they basically have no children's fares. They say that they do, but as far as I can tell, unless you were paying a fullfare ticket, the children's fare is a worse deal than what you would find online anyway. I understand that my kid takes up the same space as an adult and I don't mind paying her ticket, BUT with NWA we usually got a couple hundred bucks off and it showed up online, we didn't have to call to get it.