Back in the day, I was an American Airlines girl. I worked on a tight budget and I flew cheap, but I had flown American to London to start a study abroad semester and I had an American AAdvantage credit card and I did my best to be loyal. I have many great American stories: sitting next to an armed bodyguard to the Lieutenant Governor of Texas on the way to a presidential inauguration; being given a bottle of champagne by an American flight attendant who noticed me reading a Bride magazine and asked about my impending nuptials; and taking an American flight from DFW to Washington Dulles on September 17, 2001, the first day America's skies reopened after 9/11. My flight crew knew members of the American crews who had died; they had the armbands, and our tense and silent takeoff ended hours later to cheers of relief when we landed safely. I thought I would always be an American Airlines girl.
But something happened along the way. Technology moved forward and American's didn't keep up. I began to have horrific customer service experiences. So American and I broke up.
Perhaps you can relate. But what's a loyal frequent traveler to do when they want to break up without losing their perks?
Enter Delta. And their status match. I will feign no objectivity here. Of the four MAJOR airlines I work with (Southwest and Alaska are the best and they are above this competition), Delta is the only one that consistently seeks customer service input through online and phone surveys. They are also the only airline that has been willing to bend policies toward the customer as much as they can for me. (E.g. Recently, I didn't want to buy a $1000 ticket on a packed flight for a customer without their input and the Delta CSA offered to hold the ticket for me until the next morning at no charge and if I needed it there would be a seat.)
Delta is working to get the lion's share of the airline business. What they do then remains to be seen. But they are earning that business at the moment.
And they are offering a Status match to frequent fliers of other airlines. A customer I book travel for recently went through the process. A United million miler, he is in a good position. He's Gold for life with United. He's also tired of flying through Chicago and Denver every winter. Atlanta and Salt Lake look pretty good. He was just granted Gold Medallion status with Delta.
So if your airline relationship is wearing thin and you are considering breaking up, check out Delta's status match. I think you will be glad you did.
Note: Those four major airlines are becoming three. Delta said they are being deluged with requests so plan on the process taking 4 weeks.
