We're flying Delta to Europe but are inclined to instead claim the miles with their partner NWA. Are there any disadvantages to doing this? One time on Delta we were upgraded to business on the transatlantic segment even though we certainly don't have tons of miles with them. Not that I'm at all anticipating this happening, but my guess is that if I were taking my miles for the flight on NWA instead this wouldn't happen. Am I correct?

Julies:

I am not sure I entirely understand your question, but I am a frequent flier on this codeshare alliance, so I thought I would attempt an answer.

If by claiming miles, you mean you want to use your accumulated Delta miles to secure a reward seat on NWA, you certainly can do this. You will need to make arrangements to do it thru the airline you hold miles with, in this case Delta. Depending on where you are going, and where you are flying from, you may also do this with other members of the alliance thru Delta. I would encourage you to explore this as there may be better deals with other members of the alliance (recently flew to Paris on Air France and was able to use many fewer miles than if we had flown on our usual alliance carrier).

You will not be upgraded with a rewards ticket. If you purchase an NWA ticket you can gain miles in your Delta account by using your Delta FF number. In addition, the upgrading systems between NWA and Delta are not the same, so if you purchase an NWA ticket and have elite status on Delta I do not believe you will recieve an upgrade even if there is space available (this is different than the arrangement between NWA and Continental, where reciprocity exists in the programs).

In any case, I hope this answers some of your questions.

Guess I was unclear. Sorry. Next month we are flying Delta to Germany. While we have a number of Delta miles already accumulated, we are thinking about asking to have the miles for this trip credited to our NWA account rather than our Delta account. (After reading today's thread about Delta and the impossibility of ever getting flights on them, I am probably more inclined than ever to put the miles on my NWA account.)

My question really is, if I decide to use my NWA FF number for these flights rather than my Delta FF number if that means I would be clumped with the group of people to whom Delta has no loyalty whatsoever (and would bump first and never offer an upgrade) because the airline assumes they have never flown with them before?

By the way, does anyone know if it is possible to combine pots of points from partners within the same alliance when claiming awards?

Check carefully. You may not get the entire number of miles.

Generally it is not possible to combine points from different alliance members for one ticket. If you want to fly on airline A, you may use 50,000 miles from A or 50,000 from B, but not 20,000 from A plus 30,000 from B.

If you use your NWA FF number and you don't have elite status on NWA, you will be treated like an average customer. And even if you have elite status on NWA, I do not believe you will be eligible for an upgrade on Delta.

Julies, the Flyertalk site was very helpful to me a year ago when I wanted to do some non-straightforward uses of FF miles. I'm sure someone there can give you lots of information. I think the website is www.flyertalk.com.