i'm nearing The end of my second year as an American airlines platinum member. Last month I was in DC and flying back to Montreal out of BWI. Go to the airport around 5:30 PM and my flight to PHL was delayed so I wouldn't make my connection. Unbelievably there was no way for me to get back to Montreal that evening and American Airlines put me on a flight the next morning on Air Canada via Toronto and offered no compensation.

Maybe this is due to the fact of American only flies to about five cities from Montreal but I was Air Canada elite for more than 10 years and I can only remember being stranded once or twice, as a Delta elite for one year I was stranded twice which was enough to stop me from flying Delta though I like their service. I have a few flights left before the end of the year so I think I'm gonna start flying Air Canada and see what it's like.

I was talking to a friend of mine last week who is planning a trip to the US he was asking me what rental car company I use. I told him that I use National but then if the price seemed expensive I would check Avis.

When I think about it more carefully however, I rarely check any other company than National because they offer good service, reasonable prices, and no wait (saving my time). I often compare airfares and hotel prices and even switch alliances regularly however I don't seem to do the same for my car rental options.

I wonder how I can apply this to my own company to be more effective.

Since I've been an elite traveler on Air Canada(Star Alliance) and Delta(Skteam) I thought that this year I would be an elite traveler on American Airlines (Onewirld)- to round out the last of the three big alliances.

As of the end of April I'm at 43,000 miles so I am already Gold and will be platinum as soon as I hit 50 thousand.

This is what I've noticed so far

Generally Delta service is a lot better- on Delta I got used to people telling me thank you for being a platinum- flying on American is like going back to star alliance- never any recognition- maybe since I'm just lowly gold this will change when I hit platinum.

Delta always has wifi on their flights- American is hit and miss- sometimes they do and sometimes not.

Delta gave lounge access to their platinum customers, looks like American does not.

American Airlines flights seem to have less delays than Delta. I have read that actually they have more- but Delta stranded me three times last year leaving me to find my own hotel - this has not happened with American.

American definitely has more flights - at least to the places I need to go- so less connections means less time spent in airports (and luckily less need for the lounge access)

The American airlines points system seems to have more value than Delta sky miles- but it is slower to collect miles. I will talk more about that in a later post.

If you are thinking about American one last point is that they don't status match for free- you have to pay a few hundred dollars to get your gold or platinum early. I would status match for free but not if I have to pay for it.

That's all I can think of for now

I used Delta as my primary airline in 2014 and this is what I found

• Generally speaking service on Delta is better than Air Canada. This may be because my home airport has tons of Air Canada elite passengers and not so many Delta elites, but I noticed a huge difference in how I was greeted and treated on flights almost immediately.
• Having wifi on flights is amazing. I spend so much time on airplanes that this was a real bonus with flying Delta

The downside to flying Delta out of montreal is that they only fly to five places directly - Newark, JFK, Detroit, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. Typically I do visit New York and Atlanta but getting to other places do require a connection. This is especially annoying going to Baltimore or Washington where both Air Canada and US Airways (now American) fly direct. I can choose to fly direct but my experiment this year was to see if I could only fly on Delta- and I did manage this except for 2 flights.

So for 2015 I am debating whether to stay with Delta or try to become elite on American, as it is the last major alliance I have not tried... anyone have  thoughts on this?

Last week I took a trip on points to Florida, my flights were $150, my car rental was $100 for three days including a full tank of gas, and my hotels were almost free (15$).

I could have spent zero on hotels but wanted a specific IHG hotel and did not quite have enough points to book it. Then I remembered that you can buy hotel points- it is a bit expensive but worth it when you are just short a few points. The number of points I needed cost me only fifteen dollars and this got me enough points to book the hotel I wanted for free.

By the way the holiday inn express in Florida City is a nice hotel to stop at if you are needing a stop on the way to the keys. Here is a link to the hotel.  

Just last week I redeemed miles for a trip to Florida on Aeroplan- I thought I was going to use my Delta miles but it took 35,000 Delta miles for the same trip which costs me 25,000 Aeroplan miles. The taxes and fees on the Aeroplan tickets were a little bit more than I would pay on Delta- but reasonable at $75 per ticket.  Looks like there is a reason they call Delta miles Skypesos

This got me starting to look at flights to Europe for me and my family next summer and it does look like it takes twice as many delta miles 130,000 compared to 65,000 on Aeroplan. Now I have a dillema, do I continue to collect Delta miles to see how many I can get by next summer, change back to Aeroplan, or try for AAdvantage?

This past week I have hit Platinum on Delta- with Delta Gold I was seeing around a 50% upgrade success rate- hopefully this will go up now that I am Platinum.

I have moved my flying from Air Canada to Delta this year and this is what I have found so far
Pros of flying with Delta

• Mileage rollover- I started the year with 12K miles from last year so I only needed an extra 38 thousand to hit gold which I have already done
• Same day flight changes with no fee (within 24 hours of departure)
• Better service- always greeted as a gold elite. this is not something to feed my ego but it is very noticeable
• Lower fees on reward tickets
• Though there arent canadian routes, you can earn Delta miles on Westjet

Cons of using Delta 

• From where I live- Montreal- Delta only has 5 direct flights, LGA, JRK, MSP, DTW and of course Atlanta. This makes it more complicated to get to places even on the east coast where I used to be able to fly direct.
• Because of this any flight delays cause a chain reaction- I have had more problems with delays then I experienced on Air Canada, and even had to spend a night in MSP recently because my first flight was delayed so long that I missed the connection.

I'm not one hundred percent sold on Delta, so far they have been pretty good- but the delays can be annoying. I wish there would be more flights out of Montreal to other places.

Coming to the end of the year its time to do a review of the frequent flier programs I am using- for the last ten years or so I have been mostly using Air Canada but over the last few months they are making changes to their program which I really dont like. 

Starting in 2014, unless you are super elite, you will need to pay an extra $500 to upgrade a North America to Europe flight, or $750 for using your eupgrades to upgrade a North America to Asia flight.You can check this link for all the info.

The other thing I have noticed is that the cost of Air Canada flights is getting more expensive. I have to fly to Asia in February and I got an economy ticket under $1,500 with Delta which was over $3,000. This does mean I have to fly through the US which means an extra layer of customs, but the price difference is significant. Most companies that I know are asking their employees to use competitive comparisons which makes it more difficult to justify the Air Canada prices.

Since I got status marched on Delta this year- I am starting 2014 with Air Canada Gold and Delta Gold. For now I will be putting most of my flying with Delta and see how that goes.

Its getting near the end of the year which means once again its time to take a look at the points programs I am using and make sure that they are relevant to next years travel. I also have to choose carefully because I have earned 36 thousand miles on Air Canada and 28 thousand on Delta this year- not enough for gold status on either airline, however, I still have two months and a few trips planned before the end of 2013.

This year I started using Delta primarily because they had great prices to Asia compared with Air Canada. 

This is where Air Canada is better:

• Delta- only serves four cities directly from Montreal, Air Canada has way more
  
• Air Canada- Gold status gives lounge status for trips inside the USA, Delta gold status gets you into lounges if you are travelling internationally (to.fron Canada counts), however, not if you are travelling inside the USA
  

Here is where Delta is better

• More Delta flights have onboard wifi- air canada is catching up but not there yet
  
• Delta staff often thank me for being a Gold member, I never get that from Air Canada being an elite 75K
  
• Changing flights only costs $50 on Delta, I have had some horrible experiences with Air Canada wanting to charge $400 to take a flight just a few hours earlier.
• Flights are typically cheaper in my experience
  
• I always get Economy plus which helps because I am 6' 3"

It is pretty much a tie for - 

• Fees on redeemed tickets- paid $60 on Air Canada for a trip to Philadelphia, and also $60 for a trip on Delta to Miami
  
• Upgrades- I only did 16 segments with Delta this year and got upgraded 3 times as a Gold skymiles member, on Air Canada you can get upgraded more by using the eupgrades, I actually used them for 10 upgrades this year on 28 segments- but now I do not have any more upgrade credits so I can't get another upgrade even if I wanted it, whereas with Delta there is always a chance.

What do you think? I am leaning towards Delta but have not made up my mind yet.