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?

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.

If you do already have elite status on one airline and you're thinking of switching to another you should really checked to see if the new airline has a status match program.

I do this myself recently I had a trip to Singapore planned and the prices on Air Canada were very expensive for the dates I needed to travel so I checked the delta website and they had reasonable fares and also a status match program. You can find info about their program here.

All I had to do was send proof that I am an Air Canada elite member, and they confirmed that if I flew over 16,000 miles in the next three months that I would get gold stars on delta. My trip to Singapore was going to be more than that. 

So I did the status match and the trip, and now I have Delta Gold status in addition to my Air Canada E75K status until the end of February 2014.

I am not sure if I will fly enough on Delta to keep this but I like to have options.

I have been flying more Delta lately because they have direct flights to Atlanta and wifi on the planes.

Recently I was on a long haul from Japan to Detroit and had reserved a window seat so I could sleep. However, when I got on the plane there was a woman with two teenagers sat in the row. She wanted to me to move to a middle seat that her daughter had been assigned!?! I spoke to the flight attendant who asked me to sit in the middle seat but said they would do something for me once we were up in the air.

Once we were airborne they moved me to an aisle seat and said they would be giving me some skymiles because I agreed to the change. 

Imagine my surprise to see 2,500 miles deposited into my account today. Nice gesture Delta!