Northwest Worldperks Award Changes Coming January 15

Posted on: December 6th, 2008 by: Gary

As part of integrating the Northwest Worldperks program into Delta Skymiles, Worldperks is making changes to their award chart effective January 15.

They’re introducing Delta-pioneered three-tiered award pricing and increasing the mileage cost of several awards.

Here’s the old award chart and here’s the new chart which displays only coach awards.

Here are the changes in coach saver award pricing:

Hawaii goes up to 40,000 miles (14% increase)

Europe goes to 60,000 miles (20% increase)

Northern South America goes up to 45,000 miles (29% increase)

Southern South America goes up to 60,000 miles (20% increase)

Indian Subcontinent, Africa, Middle East drop to 80,000 miles (9% reduction)

Naturally, this is not good for Worldperks members but on the whole pretty much as expected — the programs are being aligned, Skymiles is the surviving program, and they need to align award charts since they will wind up permitting transfer of points between programs before the programs are actually merged. Without aligned award charts one could transfer points to the program which requires fewer miles for a given award.

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Tail Wagging the Dog Saga (or are Frequent Flyer Programs the Dog Now?)

Posted on: December 2nd, 2008 by: Gary

Where does an airline go for cash when it’s short? Its frequent flyer program, even when that program is a separately traded entity. Aeroplan is pre-paying Air Canada for award tickets:

Air Canada (ACa.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday that Groupe Aeroplan Inc (AER.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the operator the airline’s frequent flyer plan, has agreed to speed payment for reward tickets issued under the plan, raising C$70 million ($56.6 million) for the cash-strapped carrier.

Air Canada, the country’s biggest airline, said in a statement the payment is for reward tickets issued by Aeroplan through May 29, 2009. The airline also said Air Canada and Aeroplan have also agreed to unspecified “commercial terms that are beneficial to both parties.”

Air Canada said the deal was a part of a move to improve short and long-term liquidity by “both traditional and nontraditional means”.