Except that the A330's are reducing their fuel costs, and increasing the number of WBC seats available as compared to the DC-10's they are replacing.

Steve

100% EQMs on all fares ?
 

Hi y'all,

Several folks have mentioned one of the plusses of this announcement being 100% EQM for all fares. I've read the NW webpage several times and I don't see this listed. It mentions changes to earning EQS and that the EQMs needed to qualify for Elite remain the same (I was worried 'bout that one). Nothing about earning EQMs.

Thanks
Steve

I just called the Plat line and was told that award reservations already booked this year for next year would be for the original amount. But then again the person I spoke to was not aware of ANY changes to the program. ;)
We will be doing IND to BKK in WBC, in standard/rule buster. For us it would mean a lot of extra miles....

This increase is the one which irritates me the most. Perhaps 140k FC was too good to last, but up 60k to 200k? :mad:

With the new award chart, this really has me thinking at looking at other carriers (specifically AA based on my travel patterns). This is a major devaluation in mileage. It's bad enough the USD has devaluated significantly over the past few years between the Bush deficit and the trade deficit -- but that's another topic.

Standard WBC to Europe at 100k, yet FC (BusinessFirst) is still 100k? I suppose the day I can actually get a BF award ticket is the day h3ll freezes over ;)

WBC is a nice product (just did WBC London-Detroit yesterday on a revenue ticket), but it could use improvement to stay competitive with other carriers.

Best,

SDF_Traveler

P.S. Perhaps CO can't afford to give away any BF seats with their advertising expenses in London; one can't help to notice the CO and BusinessFirst advertising which is plastered around Victoria Station and on the Gatwick Express -- everytime I'm in London (once a month, or more) I seem to notice even more advertising.

It's not 100% EQM on all fares. EQM accural does not change. Somehow this is supposedly a positive change when in fact, there hasn't been a change.

This little note is disturbing:
So SEA-NW-HNL-HA-OGG will require 45000 miles if one can't find availability on NW/CO/DL flights?

You're right. I might have jumped the gun. The words still are not clear on the 100% EQM. To me, a change from 100% EQM would be significant enough that I believe it would have been included in this announcement if there was a planned change in this policy. It does state "Here are several important changes that may affect you in 2005...with no mention of 100% EQM change. I am optimistic that there is no change for 2005.

Jiburi '04

EQM and AUS Awards?
 

I have a question on both the EQMs and Australia awards:

If CO/NWA/DL – and to a greater extent SkyTeam are in an alliance how can there be a noticeable imbalance in policy. The CO award to AUS is 80K/105K/135K via Quantas and while I understand that the airlines negotiate different contracts, a 65K mileage difference for FC to AUS seems oddly out of sync.

Furthermore, if NWA awards full elite credit on their flights what is to stop me, a CO Plat, from jumping ship to NWA for the coming year? Chances are that I will not receive a comp, but if NWA will continue to offer 100% EQMs I see very little to loose. Once more the imbalance seems a little more than what I would expect from two airlines in a close alliance.

Of course CO may choose to further enhance OnePass (i.e. axing 100 EQM via co.com) but I don’t see them doing away with the EQM rhubarb. I dunno, it just seems that many mixed fare passengers as myself are going to jump ship.

Comments?

This is scary! They do not mention the 100% EQM, which indicates that there might be possibility for LTK fare to earn 50% EQM. However, even this happens, I do hope NW to come at least as low as CO to keep 100% on all paid fares booked on nwa.com. About the EQS stuff, sounds like that I have to make double or triple connections everytime I fly next year.

Thanks god I booked the BWI-SYD trip one month ago for 80000 miles, which will cost 100000 now. This is clearly a disadvantage as compared to the UA award chart. Also, they do not lower the mileage requirement to Africa, very sad!

They do not mention intra Asia award requirements on NW but do mention that intra Asia on CO will require 25000 miles. I hope they keep the original 20K requirements for travel on NW metal--my friend and I are considering booking a PEK-SIN using his parents' miles (they came to US once and accrued 22000 miles in each of their accounts)

Another thing that I am concerned does not happen--increasing award requirements for travel to Alaska; but within Hawaii trip for 10K is definitely a :td:

Basically, there is nothing beneficial to passengers in the change of award travel. Only increased mileage requirement but no decreased mileage requirement happens---what are they thinking about?

Hawaii is still a bargain at 35,000 to 45,000 miles.
 

It's still better than rulebusting. Besides, if you live along the west coast, you also have variety of flight option if you connect via Alaska Airline flight with no additional miles. There are hawaiian gateway from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and soon Anchorage.

From west coast, 35,000 to 45,000 miles for award travel to Hawaii is still reasonable. From East Coast, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Alaska, I think that's still a steal. A travel from New York is about 5000 miles each way. For such an award traveling that distance is an incredible value at both 35,000 or 45,000 miles.

One additional footnote. Northwest will not charge you for interisland flight segment if it is part of an international award. So if you wanted to fly to Japan, via Maui from Seattle and needed to connect to Honolulu few days later for Japan, there is no mileage deduction for the interisland flight. The award is still 60,000 on economy ticket.

SEA-OGG-HNL-NRT-SEA

Jiburi '04

The way I read this is that 2004 features remain unchanged with the following changes. 50% EQM on other airline flights, 50% EQM bonus on high fares and BC/FC fares.

Today are the big changes: on the plus side the EQS and the negative side the increase award rates.

Um... everything is better than rulebusting. Rulebusting involves using more miles for fewer restrictions. If you set your standards low enough, everything can still be better than XXX. "Well, it's good because at least it doesn't cost 1 million miles."

So how do I get to Hilo from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and soon Anchorage with "no additional miles"?

Value is subjective. You might think it's an 'incredible value' while I may think it's an 'incredible rip-off'. What is objective is a comparison of award levels with those of competing programs.

UA charges 60K/90K/120K for awards from North America to Australia, so I fail to see how NW charging 100K/150K/200K deserves a YES with a thumbs up.

I think you'll see a lot of people jumping ship over to NW. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, but there'll be an influx of elites to NW. Might be a smart move for NW to generate more customer loyalty.

I always had trouble with booking award travel on NW, that why I was reluctant to use my WP number when I first started using NW.

Either way, from the perspective of a newer NW elite, aside from the older aircraft and the lack of many of the amnities other airlines have at their hubs that MEM doesn't have, NW is still a quality product and I think this is a positive thing. ^

keithguy,

Has that not always been the case (additional miles once you get to HNL)? If not, I've been ripped off.

For what it's worth, you can get to KOA for 35K miles on the 757 SEA-OGG-KOA-SEA. Not Hilo, but only 90 minutes or so. My experiences has been that there's TONS of standard availability on that flight, but maybe that's changing.

No change of 100% EQM policy in the mileage accrual page
 

We've all been focusing on the "2005 change" page, the mileage accrual page has only slight changed, with the EQS policy change. http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/earn/airfl.shtml

NW and NW Airlink...

Elite Qualifying Fare Classes
Elite Qualifying Miles at 150%: P, F, J, C, Z, Y, B
Elite Qualifying Miles at 100%: M, H, Q, V, L, T, K
Elite Qualifying Segments: P, F, J, C, Z, Y, B (M, H, Q, V, L, T, K effective January 1, 2005

I think this supports my idea that there is no change planned on EQM for January 1, 2005.

Jiburi '04

I'd be surprised if there are really that many core elites on segments.

And few people are going to come to NW, which now has the worst award redemption based on cost, combined with the industry's worst standard award redemption opportunities. Only CO charges as much for a business-class ticket to Europe, and they also offer no middle seats in business class (and a bit higher standard of service).

Northwest, OTOH, is the airline that offers a fruit plate -- a small fruit plate! -- to its WBC passengers arriving into the US after the long haul from Asia. To cut costs, okay, fine. We'll live.

But to slash costs and service and raise rates, well, it sets NW well back from the competition. Unless they whip out some benefits to try and 'give back' some of what they've taken, this is just a big step downhill.

Steve