This is the last straw.

I am basically out of here, probably.

UA has nonstops to China (which save a lot of time) and has better standard award availability.

You can upgrade from almost any fare to Business Class. And it is fairly easy to upgrade (NW's international upgrade, even if you buy expensive fares and use miles, is a true pain).

On top of that, now NW requires 30,000 miles more than UA to buy standard WBC award to Asia?

(Assuming there IS standard award, a big IF as thezipper correctly indicated.)

Not to mention that 20,000 miles Coach/30,000 miles WBC award within Asia are gone. Now it is 50,000 miles Coach/70,000 miles Business on KE.

It will be sad to leave NW and switch to UA after flying NW exclusively for more than a decade. But for folks in my position, I am afraid that it is a no-brainer. Ironically, I will become a NW Plat for the first time next month. Talk about wasted opportunity other than securing a status comp of Premier Executive from UA. But I can not dispute the cold facts........

I'm pretty stunned at this, maybe I'm too naive and should have expected this.

What an incredible devaluation of miles.

I've just given up trying to get upgradeable tix to the US over Christmas and will be flying Y.

The SO and I just purchased enough flights to make Platinum over Christmas and now this happens.

For domestic US travel, NW's great. Huge upgrade possibilities, great agents, competitive prices in all the markets I've travelled in. Doesn't look like they've altered the US domestic awards.

But NW is clearly not geared to the international traveler. I know this is old news to many of you, but it's really just hit me. The int'l upgrading policy is a joke, the award availability is crap, the lack of integration with KLM is laughable. This latest round of devaluations seems clearly aimed to keep NW flyers in the CONUS!

For the first time in 10 years I'm going to seriously consider moving my business elsewhere.

You are absolutely correct. Look at Delta.........

For me NWA no longer offers what I want..... and it is All About Me anyway

All I can say is to book your awards as quick as possible! At least you'll get some play out of them. I had no problems booking last night for May flights.

Absolutely. I will have about 260,000 miles in bank by March 1, 2005 and hopefully will find some additional 10,000 miles either by WP Visa or a mini MR to grab 3 WBC awards to Asia before that dreaded deadline.

The pain is, some combined 110,000 miles in varioud accounts for members of my family won't be much useful. But, we will live with that.

It is bad that I already have 42,000 EQMs' trips booked for first few months of 2005. So the switching to UA won't happen until 2006. But, UA may also increase the award mileage requirement for business class by then

At this point, in light of new NW award chart, I am afraid that next time when I buy an $8,000 J fare to Japan, the airline probably won't be NW.

What about MH? I know people have redeemed awards on their F cabins in the past.

Anyway, NW really needs to adjust this new chart of theirs. A standard award from US to Asia now takes 120,000 miles in WBC, but it says FC has 'No Change'. Am I the only idiot that can see the current FC awards also going for 120,000 miles? Has NW valued their WBC at the SAME level as KE First?

MH F was available, and hopefully still will be. But it's not SkyTeam, so I didn't count it.

This enhancement hurts.

I have been hoarding miles for trips to Brazi, Australia, Tahiti and Singapore with the gpapadop family.

It looks to me that this enhancements will cost me mucho miles....that it hurts.

I am taking these steps...No more hoarding....NO MAS!!!!!!
shifting all credit card activity to Starwood AMEX (and potentially to the Diners Club), canceling my NW Platinum Visa, keeping my no fee NW Worldperks visa for the odd place that has no AMEX.

Suggestions on plenty of reward availability dates to Brazil and Singapore are very welcome! Australia and Tahiti were just taken out of the dream trips, thanks a lot Northwest for the loyalty shown to you over the years over picking you instead of Spirit to my frequent trips to Florida...oh yes, one more change, spirit will be greatly considered from now on and will be likely be picked, why pay NW a premium for a few more freaking miles on a super devalue mode and awful availability too!!!

Thanks FT for allowing me to vent

where did you see that? i read the changes specifically with that award in mind, but didn't find any bad news (the ke award hike doesn't really affect me.)

Although "Within Asia" category is not listed, it doesn't mean it's no longer offered by WorldPerks.
I believe the webpage only highlights "changes" to the award chart.

Oh.... That is good news! (IF YOU ARE CORRECT AND I AM SLOOPY----I HOPE SO)

Now I can make some good use of various WP accounts of my family members with balances ranging from 20k to 40k

If you want to book award tickets to Brazil, do so before January 1st. I've booked 3 already for 105k. After January 1st, it'll take 150k.

So much for my loyalty. I am with BOS-NWA. I will be burning my 350K in WP miles and then leveraging my Plat status for a comp on UA. These new award charts are insulting. Have they lost their colllective minds up there Minnesota with regards to the Australia/New Zealand chart?

No more (paid) Redtail for me.

Jaimito's right. I've loaded up on SCL tix. Better still for GIG and GRU book on CO if you can and colonize their cabins while the differential still exists in our favor. You had to figure this was coming with recent SkyTeam partner activity: or what snake would call CO's recent "enhancements" to this "Southern South America" routing together with DL's earlier inflation to 50k. In my view the 35k awards were the best bang-for-buck in the WP system. And the increase in WBC to Europe hurts: those were a good deal. So, two strikes on my account.

But.... it's not all bad. Have you guys noticed the appearance of a new 20,000 mile award from Mexico to "Northern South America:" I believe that mirrors CO OP policy although maybe we can get the awards more easily through WP. For those of us within driving range of airports like HMO - not much further than PHX from my house - this is really good news. Now we can redeem 20k awards to LIM and CCS, or 40k in J! I'll let you know how this goes when I attempt it on January 1st

For years I used to state Delta had one of the best FF values, at only 30k miles for US48-Hawaii. Now I'd say UA/Star with 60k/90k/120k to the South Pacific and Australia might be number one. Does anyone know if they've announced 2005 plans (ie. could they be announcing any changes soon)?

Jeff