It refers to date of ticketing. Ticket before March 1, 2005 and you'll get the lower cost. After (including deciding to change a ticket issued before the date) it will cost the new amount of miles.

Ticketing.

I agree it's definitely another subject. And it depends upon where you are and what type of travel you do. I live in a market where NW has 40% of the market and 14 out of 15 flights are mainline jets, most of my travel is domestic and the hubs are conveniently located for me. Meanwhile, UA offers hellish CRJ's and the occasional ARJ (1-class) through the hell that is ORD and their prices aren't competitive. Therefore, in my case the fact that NW requires less EQM is almost irrelevant because I'd be flying them anyway.

However, there are people that are obviously on both sides of the fence as to which program offers better top tier benefits. But irrefutably it's easier to get there on NW and that's going to affect how you view the benefits.

Europe to Africa /Indian Subcontinent/ Middle East is 70,000 miles. AA's got it for 40k, UA and BA for 50k and NW for 70k?!?

This is pretty ridiculous. Coupon connection could be a pretty mutually beneficial mileage saving opportunity.

I fail to understand that too -- especially given the fact that paid fares from California to Australia are at very reasonable levels in coach. 100k miles for a fligth that UA will sell for $700. I don't think I will be taking up that option.

Confirmed tonight... MH is still a NW partner, the new award structure will apply to them as well.

that's cool. i doubt there will be too many takers for their new J awards since F is the same price (i'm pretty sure others have pointed out such in this thread as well).

This has already been happening in 2004. I am a CO Plat, use my status as a CO Plat for upgrades, but have all flights deposited in my NW account. I'll unfortunately be Gold this year because I always earned my Plat status via segments on CO... And the move NW made to allow all fares to qualify for EQS is perfect for a guy that does a lot of east coast, short haul travels.

NW already makes it easy for a CO Plat to convert, and I would suggest to anyone who's fed up with CO to make that change... I did, and its been worth it.

RuleBuster Awards(waives MOST capacity controls).
on UA, Standard Award doesn't have ANY capcity control.

NW Standard Award Flights within or between North Asia and South Asia on Korean Air require 50,000 miles for Coach, 70,000 miles for Business and 100,000 miles for First Class.
The comparable UA Saver Award on ANY star-alliance flights operate out of NRT requires 40,000 , 60,000 and 80,000 only.

Also, NW doesn't even operate an F class product within Asia.

If NW has not changed, UA's *A partner within Asia might not be a good value, but NW has changed to the ever confusing new chart, and requiring a LOT more miles than before.

I was perusing my credit card account, and noticed that NW has charged my credit card the $5 booking free for my award. Now it hasn't "cleared" yet, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to call them to get it taken off. Yet more fun.

All a big mistake?
 

In response to my letter explaining my displeasure with the new award levels, I received the following e-mail:

Dear TRVLRZ,

We are sorry, to hear about your dissatisfaction with our program. What
award fare increase are you referring to? Travel within the
Continental US is still 25,000 award miles.

Thank you for choosing Northwest/KLM Airlines. We appreciate your
business.

Sincerely,

Bob @@@@@@
Correspondence Specialist
WorldPerks Customer Service Center

According to the correspondence Specialist, continental us awards are still only 25,000 miles and they are not aware of any other increases? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

well, yeah, but this thread has nothing to do with domestic Y awards. it's the asia, europe, and s. america changes that have people fuming.

your facts are valid, of course, but the awards i was referring to when you quoted me were the 20/30/40k intra-asia awards of old (aa, nw, and ua all used to let people travel around asia for a pittance). the situation has steadily worsened throughout the industry, but NW still lets pax fly on any route in asia -for which it publishes fares- for 20k in y and 30k in c. plus you can split the legs (i usually do y on morning flights and c in the evening). this can be a great value if you live in shanghai and need to get to tokyo for a few days. ua is still comparable in this regard; however nw wins because it has great coverage out of nrt (ua doesn't even fly between japan and china any more). as you point out, *a awards on ua provide a lot of flexibility, but they are more expensive.

Yes, that and the fact that they did not know about any award changes were the ironic part of the whole letter sent to me. ;)

I completely get your point now! Yes, NW has more flights out of NRT, but if you think about flights such as HKG - BKK/ HKG - SIN or SIN - BKK, Star Alliance flights are better choice. I mean, the new changes to NW's award chart is just ridiculous......