Changes to Worldperks program 2005
 

Here's the interesting part:

All paid fare classes eligible to earn WorldPerks miles on Northwest or any of our Elite Qualifying Airline Partners (Continental Airlines flights in Q, I, S, W, T, X, L classes; Delta Air Lines operated flights are excluded) to count towards your Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS) for the 2006 program year! Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) required to achieve Elite status will remain the same as in 2004.


2005 changes


award travel changes

Looks like there really isnt anything to complain about - nothing like the status quo (although toss in a few SWUs and I would have been dancing through the aisles).

Gary

If that's really the full extent of the changes, that's fantastic news!

This should make segment runs a popular forum topic in '05 :)

Holy cow!

Did I just see WBC to Europe go to 100,000 miles, and Asia to 120,000?

This explain's CO's annoucement -- they had actually let the cat out of the bag.

Coupled with terrible standard award availability, this is an ugly devaluation of miles. :td: :td: :td:

Well, at least I have 24 hours to reconsider the RTW I just called on. I've really got to look at alternatives.

Steve

ugh. nice miles deval there. the segments change is a plus, I guess, but they upped the number of segments required per level. so it seems like a wash.

what's with CO Biz First being a "first class" award? was it always like that?

The new EQS system brings things more in line with other airlines. ^

Sooo glad to see that they're not taking away 100% EQMs or altering the EUA system in any way. Hurray!

That award chart is confusing as heck.

Looks like HA inter-island awards are going from 5k to 10k and US-Europe WBC awards are going from 80k to 100k. Ah, devaluation.

BF is already lumped in the First Class category. Not sure why.

Not to mention, standard award ticket in coach/business/first from US to Australia/NZ (a popular miles redemption route for FlyerTalkers) is now 100,000/150,000/200,000 miles respectively!! :(

Can't help from boiling over this, especially given that I had JUST ticketed the two RTW tickets moments earlier. This is such a giant take-away that it just gets me going.

I could deal with always needing to Rulebust because at least it was only 320,000 miles to Europe. And I gained flexibility.

But 100,000 miles as a standard award? That's more than UA or AA, and they both have decent standard availability! None of this "well, find this, and waitlist for that, and just hang in there" baloney. And believe me, while the new WBC seats are nice, they barely bootstrap NW into being competitive, much less superior.

There's gonna have to be a significant upside to elite bennies (like SWU's) for this not to kill NW's usefullness for me.

Steve

Awards are one thing of conccerned, but at least no change for within NA and coach to Europe.

Segments count and I can see lots of NA FFs swithching over to NW for that. If you do lots of short segments you should appreciate the increase value of your flying.

What about 150% EQMs for higher fares? No mention yet so can I expect no change to last years improvement?

Next few days we should hear about changes to benefits. Should be interesting.

This is definitely a good change for most flyers, but it would have been smart of them to make J/C/Z/P/F/Y/B segments count for 1.5 EQS, so that those few folks out there who currently qualify on segments wouldn't be negatively impacted. It doesn't affect me, though.

FC awards no change?
 

Weird. WBC awards to Europe/Asia will require more miles, but FC remains unchanged. How can that be? The new chart states that FC is valid on CO/KE only. I better book that FC trip (LAX-KUL) on MH soon.

I too was wondering about MH. And still no F awards on AF, apparently. :(

North/South Asia split
 

Nobody has mentioned the new split of Asia into North and South zones, like *A and OW. Not a good thing. "North Asia" consists of only Japan, Korea, Mongolia, so you'd think that's good, since South Asia is all the rest of Asia, other than Indian subcontinent.
BUT in order to get ANYWHERE in Asia on current Skyteam choices, you'd have to transit in NRT or ICN, thereby incurring a North/South Asia ticket, vs. a simple "within North Asia" or "within South Asia" ticket.
MH is still an option, though not mentioned on the chart. Hope it's still around! Also, China Southern might join at some point too. But nothing yet.
Here's the kicker:
"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."
Compare this to the old NW award levels of Y=20K, C=30K, and F=40K. Yuck! Especially on within North Asia--that means the 1hr15min flight ICN-NRT on KE would be 100,000 miles in F. Umm....think I'll pass!
Finally, there is no listing of intra-Asia award levels, other than on KE (and that's in the footnotes). Does that mean that NW/MH awards are still 20/30/40? :eek: I hope so!

Overall, it's a good news....
 

^ YES on 100% EQM on all NW and partner flights (excluding select CO and DL).
^ YES on 25K/50K/75K Elite requalify levels.
:td: NO on 10,000 miles for Interisland Hawaii Award. (previously 5000)
^ YES on Award levels to South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand

:confused: Confused on the increased complexity of available awards. Granted it had to be done, but it's so confusing.

Overall, changes aren't too drastic! Thanks NW.

Jiburi '04

I don't think slippahs will like that hawaii award change though....but 5000 miles for travel within Hawaii was too cheap. It was good while it lasted.