NW scoop

Dear FlyerTalkers

Although I check FlyerTalk several times per week, it has been some time since I posted. I hope the update below gives you some good inside scoop.

The NW and DL teams continue to plan our integration. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of clarity I can offer on this subject. However, I’ll note that despite the differences between the programs that need to be reconciled, WorldPerks and SkyMiles are very similar in many respects. Most importantly, we are consistent in our domestic upgrade policy and both recognize that this is the key feature for our top elite members. We recently ran some focus groups that reinforced this point.

Here are a couple of updates that you may (or may not) have heard about:

Integration timeline: To integrate WorldPerks and SkyMiles, there is a lot of system work and price/rule alignment that can’t even start until after the merger is approved. You shouldn’t expect any major integration early in 2009. As I keep repeating, your miles and status are safe and neither loyalty program’s members will be preferred over the other during the integration.

Mountains of Miles: We launched our annual major promotion this past week, providing another opportunity for members to earn lots of bonus miles.

EQMs for WorldPerks Visa: As you may have heard, we have finally started awarding EQMs for spend on your WorldPerks Visa. Details can be found at: http://www.nwa.com/features/signatureeqm/
This was a tough call for us as we have historically been very sparing in the use of EQMs for non-flight activity. While I still believe in this philosophy, we just can’t be uncompetitive with the rest of the industry in attracting/keeping WorldPerks Visa cardholders. A couple of notes:
• All the major carriers allow some earning of EQMs with their co-brand card
• It is only available on our top WorldPerks Visa card
• Our projections show minimal impact on upgrade success rate

Domestic Upgrading: As promised, we’ve implemented the ability to watch your place on the upgrade list. Go to the “manage my reservations” section of nwa.com to find it. Also, we’ve made some technical improvements to the Domestic upgrade processor (nickname: GUS). I won’t bore you with the details, but the net result is earlier upgrades. Also, as I noted in my recent letter, we’re working on reciprocal elite upgrading with DL. Look for a 4Q08 roll-out.

PerkChoice: The “facelift” that I promised back in July has been delayed due to technical problems. However, I think it will launch in the next 2 weeks (with the ability to earn miles on the revenue portion of the ticket).

New ways to redeem miles: We’ve been working to increase the ways to redeem your miles. In addition to our popular PerkChoice product, below are a few of the things we’ve implemented this year:
• Redeem miles for rental cars and hotel stays: http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/redeemmiles/mltecert/
• Redeem miles for luggage tags: http://www.nwatagyourbag.com/.
• Redeem your miles for merchandise (if you hold a WorldPerks Visa) at: http://www.nwa.com/shopwithmiles/
• Bid your miles on goods and events at: http://auctions.nwa.com/

Continental: I’m sure many of you saw CO’s announcements last week regarding elite bonuses and the 500 mile minimum. Please note that the NW agreement with CO requires that WorldPerks can’t be more generous on CO than OnePass. That means that the WorldPerks members will be impacted by these rule changes when flying on CO aircraft. More information to come soon….

Lastly, one of the questions I get most often is about the domestic upgrade sort order. I don’t know how this became such a mystery but it is fun to see some of the speculation. Obviously the first sort order is by Elite status, then we rank members based on their annual spend on the airline and if necessary, sort based on fare class for the flight. So while there isn’t really a “2% club”, we do give upgrade (and other) preference(s) to the people that spend the most money on air travel each year. Please don’t ask our Elite agents about your particular annual spend as they won’t be able to answer.

I appreciate your feedback and will continue to post occasionally. Thanks again for your continued business and patience.

Best regards.

Bob Soukup
Managing Director WorldPerks

florin

Spoken like a true member of the you-know-what club.

FlytheTail

Thanks for the update, Bob. This last point is the only thing "new" to me, and it is great to know. Many speculated that checking in online at the 23:59:59 mark gave one a better chance for an upgrade, but I never believed it.

However, this does not seem to agree with what is posted online: http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/elite/upgradetips.shtml: So, is date of ticketing not considered?

thezipper

Remember the first rule of the you-know-what club.....

psychtobe

well that's no good. Can't fly CO now (no 500 miles, presumably only 25% bonus for silver) and can't fly DL now (no upgrades). NW to Texas is a joke - always priced about twice all other competitors. If they don't fix their pricing or DL relationship quickly it's over - I'll be moving to another airline.

TheMoose

You will be moving to another airline soon. It's called Delta. And don't blame NW. CO started all of this first by leaving SkyTeam and then by announcing these cuts. NW has to follow suit per their written agreement.

And didn't Bob say above that reciprocal upgrades with Delta are coming soon, likely 4Q08? That's in just a few months. I think you can wait it out...

motytrah

I'm not surprised the customer spend comes into play. Every airline seems to use various data points to determine "value". For instance on DL, holders of their premium Credit Card are sent to the head of the pack for each elite tier.

notsosmart

Thank you for the update. Maybe I won't be running to CO after all...

The only thing that bums me out is the EQMs awarded for non-flight activity (the Visa card), but if, as you say, these are only given to Signature cardolders, it probably won't have much effect on overall u/g rates.

socrates

Bob thank you for continuing to keep us updated

Socrates

PS Mr. Steenland has asked me to remind you of rule #1 (if there was such a rule) about the "2% club" (if it existed)......

#1 Confirmation of said club or denial there of will result in automatic termination by any and all employees of NWA Inc.

Process for appealing termination for violating 2% club rules (if it existed)

Refer to rule #1 of 2% club (if it existed)

SpinzCity

><<<<<<Refer to rule #1 of 2% club (if it existed)...

I'm amazed that you even mentioned it. To even breathe a word about the 1% club will result in immediate... no--wait a second! You were talking about rule #one of the TWO-percent club! No problem then! Sorry I brought it up. Just ignore this post, because if I even breathe a word about the

NOLAnwGOLD

I would think that FT.com would be the best place to spill all the details....classic info that we'd eat up!!

ifette

Wow, this is a fascinating revelation. Is it the annual spend for the current calendar year, the previous calendar year, or the past twelve months? (Or something else?)

Not that it really matters all that much, I'm not likely to change my spending habits to get a higher upgrade priority, but I am curious

redtailshark

Bob, is this formal reciprocity a new thing or not? In 2004, I redeemed for GIG at 35k for Y PerkSaver. On CO metal. Booked on NWA.COM. On that flight, I rode down next to a CO elite who'd paid 50k NonePass miles for his Y saver seat. This was some time after CO had raised the redemption requirement for US-deep LatAm. He wasn't so excited about the "reciprocidad" back then.

Also, in case you aren't aware of the drum I beat to death on here, another restoration of WP function is needed. Not an "enhancement," just bring us back to where we were in 2005.

Yes, you know... the AM int'l award availability. It used to be, we could book HMO-LIM (say) using the NWA.COM booking tool.. and we could at least see MEX-CDG inventory too. It's not fair to call AM an "OnlinePartner" in the same category as KL or AF - which is currently how NWA.COM presents this option - if we can't actually see inventory for certain routes online Down with all StarNet-type filtering!

And, please continue to monitor SDF ground handling.

hw711

^^^

GrizShel

Wow! This is something I commented on and asked for and I can't believe you really are implementing such a postive change in this year of much doom and gloom for airline travelers! ^ ^

Now let me focus on my biggest concern in all of the changes announced this year. Of course I, like a lot of travelers, have a boatload of complaints about all new fees implemented this year, but the biggest concern I have is about the award travel fuel surcharges. This is a very inefficient way for an airline to try to generate additional revenue because of all of the taxes that it triggers for the customer. This makes the award travel program a substantially less attractive incentive to fly more with a particular airline (at least it does for me). As much as I like Northwest, I've responded to this and other Worldperks/Skymiles changes (the biggest share of concerns coming from what's happening with Skymiles award travel, which soon will affect me directly) by burning a boatload of Worldperks miles for award travel and having to realistically look at alternative loyalties for 2010. Of course I realize that almost all airlines are making many of the same negative changes, but it remains true that I see the value of my elite status declining so I believe that I should be open to change in this environment.