Northwest frequent fliers lose upgrades on Alaska
 

More good news for WorldPerks elites...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ebdelta08.html

Among the other changes:

• Free upgrades on award tickets (those purchased with frequent flier miles) will be unavailable to current WorldPerks members until spring of 2010.

• The PerkChoice program, an option that allows Northwest members to use miles to pay for one half of a round-trip and cash for the others, will be discontinued.

Delta has a similar "Pay with Miles," program. Currently, it's only available to those with a Delta Skymiles credit card issued by American Express, although that could change in the future, Skrbec said.

• WorldPerks members who have achieved elite status will be eligible to obtain unlimited free upgrades for traveling companions.

:td:

Alaska flyers are also losing auto upgrades on NW starting 10/1.

First priority right now is simply getting the integration to happen and everyone in the same program. Once that happens, then we should see some of the NW WP benefits (such as PerkChoice, the AS upgrades, award ticket upgrades, etc.) return once the largest (and for most people, most important) part of the FFP merger is done.

why is there any reason to believe that perk choice will come back?
to me, it seems that perk choice is being *enhanced* with pay will miles.

Jeff Robertson mentioned at the Delta DO back in June that they really like the PerkChoice option and do plan on bringing it back - it's just another one of those Delta technology issues where the antiquated DL computer system can't handle PerkChoice (or award upgrades, or Alaska upgrades, etc.) at this time without getting some massive code added to it to handle it.

http://www.delta.com/help/faqs/merge...tflyer#merge_1

Why was PerkChoice eliminated? Will it be reinstated?
Due to the significant challenges and resources required to integrate two programs on very different platforms, we are not able to develop this functionality for Delta at this time; however, a similar Pay with Miles program for eligible Delta SkyMiles American Express Cardmembers is available to purchase tickets with a combination of miles and money. Once total integration of the two airlines is completed, we will revisit the program and development of this option.

Tell me about it, last week was on an F award RT where three of the two legs were confirmed into F, however one leg was not available at booking. Talked to NW Plat line, they were perplexed however provided advice to check at various airport desks along the way which I did, as well as to watch for certin inventory to open up and to call back.

Essentially the non-upgraded portion would not be included in the regular upgrade sweeps. Ironicly had someone tell me that had the whole trip been booked as a coach award, the segments would have been included into the upgrade sweeps in the applicable rankings. Had a good coach seat so slept through the flight and chalked it up to a learning experience as well as chance to re-qualify for coach/exit row seating ;).

-H

Hmm, I thought Charlie Feld and crew had fixed all of that about 10 years ago when they worked their magic at DL, perhaps duct tape is coming lose?
-H

As previously discussed
 

FT Link

Might be a good time for us AS elites to skip DL anyway... until the integration is over :eek: