I doubt they'd go the route of an official, online, automated program/portal. That said, CO is definitely matching status for disaffected NW elites. I emailed in my request with a scan of my WP card and latest statement and they processed the Platinum status match in one business day.

peace,
~Ben~

I am sure the market will sort this out quickly. With travel falling, it will just go to the most efficient one with cash.

You folks who are status matching with CO: Did you send them copies of your online statement or are you still getting paper ones?

Also, let us know how it goes with upgrades and stuff once you're over there.

I just PDFed a copy of my online account summary and attached it to the email with a scanof my elite card. No problem.

peace,
~Ben~

I have sent in my letter to the e-mail provided. Is it known whether there will be a specific communication back to FlyerTalk members after they have reviewed all of our letters with a result of the review?

Thanks!

I sent my (goodbye) note today, but I doubt I'll get a response, let alone see any corporate action.

It appears that [email protected] does not appear anywhere online except here on FlyerTalk. Is NW trying to separate FT'ers from the masses by giving us a special E-mail address?

If so, any reason to use the generic TTU E-mail?

Haven't sent my TTU yet, but talked to a PE agent the other day about the award changes. He said send to TTU, I'll probably do both to the email and TTU. Will do so in the next day or two. Hopefully all these crappy enhancements will stabilize and stop soon, so I can write an email and not have to write another one in a week for the fleecing that occurred.

Sent mine, too. Felt like a breakup, except it's them, not me.

I just sent an email with my reasons. I had previously complained on the phone and tried TTU (but couldn't get the bloody thing to work).

the hidden cost of recent changes
 

I suspect that NWA ignores 99% of the complaining they hear about changes to their FF program. After all, talk is cheap. And if you spend enough time on flyertalk.com you learn that "elite" FFs tend to whine a lot about how special they are. NWA knows that at the end of the day, most FF's will publicly blow hard and threaten to go somewhere else while secretly still flying NWA where they have status, get upgrades and collect bonus miles.

Having said that, and after 12 years with elite status (the last 9 at Plat), I find myself thinking hard about the cost of business travel in this horrible economy. With more layoffs looming, what travel I do will be the cheapest fares (i.e. mostly not NWA/Delta) and I'll put up with the coach seats, goofy connections and crappy schedules. As I probably won't fly enough to make PE anyways, the downgrades to the FF program no longer leave me looking for ways to satisfy my company's travel rules while still flying NWA. Its one of those hidden costs that NWA can't see which is too bad. I enjoyed my years as an elite flyer.

You know, that's pretty much what I put in my goodbye email. Well said.

That would be WN.

But there is more to the story, because WN does not fly everywhere. Thanks to Alfred, inefficient airlines can and do exist, because of fortress hubs. If we still flew city-pairs, this game would have been over long ago.

Many companies, to this day, do not allow travel on non-legacies. They were considered "not safe", "not corporate". My company changed its policy in 2007 and now allows travel on WN.

2009 will be a very interesting corporate travel year. It's way down, some say 50% or more. When enough corporations say "we're buying on price, not on history", DL will pay attention. Of course, they don't really have to with ATL-based F1000 corporations (e.g. Coca-Cola) since DL has it locked down. So, the merriment continues.

As for me, it's simple. I have been an NW WP member since 1984 - 25 years now. Loyal to a fault. I used to fly NW when I could and WN when I had to (mostly day trips, schedule-specific, city-pairs). Now, I fly WN when I can and DL when I have to. It's a simple change, but unless there is a sea change in DL management (going BK would help here) and competitive pricing (no help forthcoming) it's a change I have decided to make.

DL will get $$tens of thousands less revenue from me in the next 12 months, but do they care? Not one whit. Driving NW elites to other carriers is the plan, after all. There is no evidence to the contrary.

That's hyperbolic. DL planners aren't thinking up ways to "drive" NW elites away - what business sense does that make? They are certainly betting that raising prices and gutting benefits won't cause a big revenue hit, though. And they may be right. For all the rhetoric from aggrieved customers, we have yet to see if they vote with their feet.

Anyone who really believed the combined FF program would be "best in class" is naive. The new program is being calibrated to be no better than it has to be.