Another consideration is that if you fly appr 85K EQM's in 2008 you might want to keep ALL of your flying on one program, either SM or WP, becasue the merger if it occurs in late 2008 or January 2009 may be too late to merge both programs in the program year starting March 1. 2009.

If both programs run another year before merging on march 1, 2010, then some pax might have 40K in SM and 45K in WP and be at the 25K tier in both instead of 75K tier in one program. That would greatly reduce bonus mile earning as well as domestic upgrades.

RC