Originally Posted by
alliance
If you look at this new program as NW's attempt to raise Plat to the likes of UA and AA in terms of SWUs - it fails horribly. But I don't think that's the purpose. It is to give NW Plats a reason to keep flying NW past 75k instead of switching their next 50k+ to another program. For that purpose, I think this program is a great carrot to keep Plats from wandering away after 75k.
I think Northwest already has benefits (like automatic unlimited domestic upgrades) that allows them to compete with AA and UA. While this doesn't level the international playing field, the progress is impressive.