Hey everyone-

I know a lot of you are happy about the news on the NWA site, but am I the only one raising an eyebrow to the statement buried in the text:

"Northwest will continue giving full mileage credit towards Elite status on most discount fares."

*Most* discount fares? The word "most" is not "all", thus this announcement sounds like the EQM rules aren't that definitive and leave room for modification--"most" discount fares sounds like a sly way of saying that they'll give you 100% EQM on NW, but they can easily alter the program and only give you 50% EQM on K fares, for instance, if they so choose.

Call me cynical, but I'm not rushing out to buy tickets on NW just yet...any thoughts?

Discount fares include stuff like Priceline and Hot Wire which ain't supposed to give you miles. Don't sweat it.

These fares also include cheaptickets.com, studentuniverse.com, and cyberSaver fares.

They aren't changing anything... it's the current situation.

actually, as a student who has patronized studentuniverse.com for the last two years, i have to disagree with the last post.

i flew internationally twice on northwest using studentuniverse.com tickets and i received full miles (EQM on CO) for both trips. in fact, by prostituting my gold elite status in tokyo (by showing the agent my elite card), my friend (a non-elite) and i were both upgraded to WBC at the gate on our flight from tokyo to beijing (a 4.5 hour flight).

i guess you could say that i owe a huge debt of gratitude to studentuniverse.com and to NWA for allowing me to earn full credit for the flights. unless things have changed recently, NW does not treat student universe tickets as consolidator fares or whatever designation is given to hotwire/priceline tickets.

Maybe they're taking your student status into consideration.

Have not heard anything about studentuniverse.com but there is a recent announcement on the NW site that Cheaptickets.com are no longer eligible for ANY mileage accrual.

I guess it is a big deal if you use that site, but if not it does not affect you.

I would expect all the aforementioned fares to still not qualify if they didn't before. Have never been a fan of CyberSavers or Cash & Miles promotions because of that clause, but those are old news.