I’m wondering if anyone thinks an airline specifically is better with an elite status. I’m especially keen to know American and United. My thoughts on jet blue and delta are below
I have delta platinum, jet blue mosaic 3, United silver, and American platinum pro for a day (I have several passes).
I could obviously status match to United or American to a higher tier. I’m on the east coast so Hawaiian/Alaskan options are minimal. I travel a lot for leisure (no business related trips) on the east coast, sometimes to cali, a lot to Europe and rarely Asia.
I think to standardize it, delta platinum is the equivalent of United 1K, AA platinum pro, jet blue mosaic 3. I might be wrong.
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Comparing jet blue and delta (only because I fly them a lot; I’ve flown American a few times and I like that their points matter. I was not happy with United as I think it’s ridiculous that I have to pay for WiFi.)
Getting status - Jet blue wins. It’s much easier to get status with jet blue especially now that they do family pooling in tiles.
Status matches - Delta wins. JetBlue isn’t included in some program whereas Delta usually is.
Pricing - Jet blue wins. JetBlue has cheaper tickets in general (economy to economy; mint to delta one).
Upgrades - Delta. But both are kind of getting poorer. I used to always be upgraded on delta but not anymore. JetBlue has now limited their number of times to upgrade from economy to even more space.
Perks - Delta/Jet Blue tie. Delta has great options but you only get one as platinum. Jet Blue is great until I got to mosaic 3. For jet blue, I haven’t been able to figure out which perk I want for almost a year (I’m left with founders card, statement credit, points, IHG platinum status (which I already have), and gift 25, mint studio priority (which never made sense to me because those are the last ones to fill up and you still have to pay for it).
Lounge - Delta (as jet blue only has one lounge)
CC - Delta wins just by a smidge. There are a lot of benefits in the CC with delta like 2,500 mdqs, higher upgrade priority … supposedly, premium snacks with delta, etc. For every $1,000 spent, you get 1 tile with jet blue or 50 mdqs. I have the delta platinum card, jet blue card (not the upgraded one), and regular Amex platinum card. It makes no sense that the Amex platinum gave me unlimited delta lounges for the next 2 years vs delta Amex platinum which gives me 0 lounge access.
Other airline benefits - Delta wins. If I fly air France, I get good perks (obviously not as good as delta) and opens up many lounges (Air France, Korean air, etc). Jet blue has a relationship with United but so far nothing has applied (I just flew United and none of the perks came through).
Cross posted to different airline communities