The Platinum Points promotion for a domestic Platinum flyer is not much a a deal. If most of us get beyond level 2 I would be surprised. Given the cost of a RT MSP-SJC full fare ticket is $1880 and it is about 3150 miles and RT MSP-TPE is $3975 and is about 14600 miles I think the full fare domestic points are far too low given the cost of the flight per mile.

I am audited by my company on ticket costs and must be prepared to justify any ticket that is more expensive than the current "sale" prices at the time of purchase.

I usually fly on discount tickets (Fare dewsignators: L, V, K, Q, M and H (using "B" fares only when no other option exists)

While I fly a lot, all in North America, I expect it would be very hard for me to reach tier One (150 Points) even flying over 175K/year.

The only way I would be successful with this promotion is there were opportunities to earn Platinum points for:

1) number of purchased tickets per quarter 2) number of partner stays i.e. Hotels, Car Rentals, etc
3) Domestic promotions with H, M, Q fares.

RC

I took another look at the program. The program does seem to be primarily aimed at International Travellers.

Clearly, Northwests existing program benefits DOMESTIC travellers. So a strategy that benefits INTERNATIONAL travellers is very complementary. I applaud NW for it.

But it still doesn't solve the problem of enabling DOMESTIC PLATS to upgrade to WBC with a reasonable program. Buying any fare upgrade certs on EBAY is still the most economical way to fly WBC.

------------------
doglover

While there is always room for improvement, let me say this.

Thank you Beth, Russ, and Richard for not taking the program backwards, and for adding some new perks and adding stretch perks for going the extra mile (pun intended) with NW.

Now lets not forget to add a waitlist for INTNL upgrades system into place as well.

Hooverer

YEA - What he said !!!!

The nicest aspect of the Worldperks program, in my opinion, is that Northwest presents all incentives in a positive manner. While there are different market sectors, i.e. Int'l, domestic, Worldvacations, etc each area of the program rewards the pax and is complimentary in nature vs. the DL and CO approach which is more punitive.

RC

I wonder if NW will send out the email offering to chose from a list of things (grant status to someone for a year, hawaii upgrades, domestic upgrade coupons, bonus miles) again in march similar to the past couple of years to reward travel for the past year.

I sure hope so...

where does one get these certs in the first place? I've never seen such a thing. whoever sells em on Ebay must be getting them somewhere

I'm in the same boat...would have only accumulated like 60 points in 2003 despite 156,000EQM.

Even with as many as 12 one ways in Y/B this year, still, that's at best 360 points -- and that's highly unlikely given that 2 trips have already happened (and I assume this won't be retroactive).

Steve

I was hoping it would be retroactive too as I would have 60 points already this year, unfortunately according to the rules on the email...

"This promotion is only valid through the 2004 Platinum Elite year which runs from March 1, 2004 through February 28, 2005"

Not only International Travelers but high-revenue travelers as well. Given that it applies to full-fare classes, it appears to be an attempt to reward those top-tier fliers that direct large sums of money to NW. But as RC says, it is another attempt to reward high-fare fliers without punishing the majority of NW elites.

I am quite happy with the segment that the Platinum Points program targets as I see it as a limited group. The idea of Plats earning points and being able to "gift" elite status to others would concern me, but the very limited nature of the program makes this far less of a concern.

This feature rewards high revenue Platinum Elites. Why shouldn't NW reward their high reveue loyal passegners? It may hurt some Silver or Gold Elites. for those who are panicking, don't. You need 1200 points to give away a Silver Elite Status. You get 1200 points by folowing activites:

Assuming one way trip gets you the spcified number of points:

15 OW or 7.5 RT in WBC
30 OW or 15 RT in diso****ed WBC
40 OW or 20 RT to Europe/Asia at Y/B fares
60 OW or 30 RT paid domestic F/P
120 OW or 60 RT in paid domestic Y/B
There are not many people who pay premium fares. The airline has every right to offer them incentives to attract revenue. It may improve finacial health of the airline.

I don't know what the distribution of elites is, but I conjecture 1:2:3::PE:GE:SE

If the first class cabin with 16 seats is full with the FC population reflecting the distribution of elites, which might not be the cae on every flight, the we have 2-3 PE 5-6 GE and the rest silver. On trunk routes there will be moe plats. There are plats who don;t purchasemany full fare tickets. So I think this brow beating is not necessary. Finacial health of the company is good for employee moral, which means hapier FA's. I think this is a very smart move on part of NW.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great program.

However, it's clearly aimed at the international traveler, as we've said. One of the core reasons is that, even traveling last minute, Y/B fares aren't all that common (I've bought same-day fares that were only H, for example), whereas a far high proportion of last-minute business travel falls into Y/B.

Steve

This program wont really help me much either. Like Radiocycle, I'm on government contracts, typically fixed fee. We typically buy the fares within what our contract budget is, no higher. In all of last year, I think I bought 2 Y fares... plus this year, I'll get maybe 1-2 C/J tix coz of a new contract.

I'm the one who recommended my colleagues to fly NWA and buy another 7-10 biz class tix. I won't get any benefit from that even though I steered $80-100K towards NWA.

I will say this though... The NWA Team is NOT punishing us for buying lower fare tickets, as other airlines have. That to me says they feel they can run the WorlPerks program with ALL passangers, not just the select high fare pax... but will reward those high-fare pax in some way as they do appreciate the loyalty.