Of the (random) airlines I pulled up on my account for redemption, they said either "once every 180 days" or "two per calendar year". Thus I could get up to 4,000 FFM each on DL, NW, US, etc... every year!

This is true. But, you're wrong about the amounts per airline. It looks like e-rewards has changed the non-limited accounts to being able to redeem up to 4000 miles per year on each airline.

Your situation is good if you like NWA a lot. I agree.

This is the final nail in the coffin of one of the least-generous, most-onerous, restrictive program. One where 100 "dollars" is worth 2000 miles ... 5 cents a mile, GMAFB! One where your "dollars" expire if not redeemed, but you have restrictions on redeeming (limits, caps, and quantized at $25). Now I can't transfer to multiple airline programs (in my case signed up through DL), which means I lose the biggest benefits of puny mileage amounts! What you "earn" through erewards is not going to get you anywhere on its own ... but it is useful to "top up" an account to extend the expiration dates mostly-idle programs. So the key was the flexibility of the numbers of programs. Now that you're restricted to your own "home" program ... even with the incremental "enhancement" of being able to transfer once every 90 days (big whoop, why restrict it AT ALL?) this devalues further an already worthless program.

Add to that the fact that I know from a friend in the market research industry who has sponsored surveys with erewards as an incentive and he found that at least 55% of her respondents were unqualified and lying through their teeth just to "qualify" for the survey, making up total garbage data in order to get their measly points.

This will soon become common knowledge among the research community that basically the results are bogus, and nobody will sponsor any more erewards studies, and this program will go bust. And there will be much rejoicing.

Dear M. xxxx,

Thank you for participating in the e-Rewards Opinion Panel. We are pleased to offer a new benefit for our Members who accepted an invitation to join e-Rewards from Delta Air Lines.

Effective immediately, you can redeem your e-Rewards Currency once every calendar quarter for Rewards from SkyMiles(R) (http://www.e-rewards.com/rewardspartner.do?partner=78). That's up to four times as many SkyMiles each year! And, with this new benefit, SkyMiles become your exclusive frequent flyer mileage Reward.

Thanks again for being an e-Rewards Member. Be sure to visit your Reward Center (http://www.e-rewards.com/rewards.do) for details about the Rewards available from Delta Air Lines. While you're there, take a look at the new Rewards we've added from BLOCKBUSTER. and other great companies.


We value your time!
The e-Rewards Team

Yep, I got this email too. As a Delta Platinum Medallion, I don't have much use for NW miles (or any other airline for that matter). But I have been using e-rewards to "top up" relatively dormant mileage accounts before they expire. Fortunately, I just burned 25 e-rewards dollars to keep my wife's US Airways account active - good thing I didn't wait until a few weeks before the actual miles expiration date. And of course NW is one of the few remaining programs that still has a 3-year expiration/dormant account rule as opposed to the more typical 18 month or 2-year rule for most airlines. And my wife doesn't even have an NW account.

I guess I just need to focus on topping up all my airline accounts to an award level, then burn the miles and closing the accounts, keeping one account per alliance. Although from a website usage standpoint, there is an advantage to keeping these accounts (at least Continental for sure).

Looking at my redemption history, I have two rewards each to US Airways and Continental - both used to keep my accounts or my wife's account active. And I did two deposits to Delta, one just to burn some $, and the other to get me some activity for a bonus that Delta was running.

I just dumped $50 in e-rewards currency into Hilton (at least I can use those to transfer to other programs). I have about $17 remaining, so I think I'll top this up to $25, get some NW miles, and close down my account.

In my secure list of online accounts, I just noticed that I have an old e-rewards account. I just logged in to this account and find that it must have been an old direct e-rewards invite. All airline options are listed with the new 6-month gap between redemptions. Based on the address and email address I used for this account, I opened it sometime before 2002. Time to close my new account, update my contact information for this old account (I think I'll update to a different current email address then the one for my new account), and keep earning e-rewards with flexibility. ^

Like most ppl here i use e-rewards to top off or keep an account active, so i am really dismayed at this change. I sent an email to them for clarification and pbjecting to this new policy and here is what i got, i guess NW in my case but the same for other airline invitations. This really makes the program far less attractive, especially that some of these surveys take 20-30 minutes for $5, which turns to 100miles

""Thank you for contacting e-Rewards. We apologize for the confusion.
Some of our redemption rules have recently changed. When you enrolled
with e-Rewards, you joined through an invitation from NWA. Members who
are enrolled with e-Rewards through NWA are now only eligible to redeem
for NWA airlines rewards. Since this change has taken place, you are
now able to redeem for NWA once per calendar quarter per WorldPerks
account and/or e-Rewards account. If you have any further questions,
please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Member Services""

Just to see what they would say, I wrote to e-rewards about this issue. Here's my message:

Here is their response:

It's a good thing that I happen to have a second account (see my post above). I guess technically I've been breaking the terms and conditions by having two accounts all along. It was inadvertent, when I signed up through Northwest a few years ago, I didn't remember that I had signed up several years earlier for an account that I never used. I only found the duplication when I went to add my new account to my personal secure list of online accounts. Until this morning, I hadn't logged into the old account for at least 6 years.

I don't even remember how I signed up for my e-Rewards account, so I have no idea from whom I received the invitation. Is there any way to find out (other than waiting for this enhanement-announcement email)?

*****