Having just blogged about the end to Platinum award change fee waivers over at the new Delta/Northwest (sourced from the head of the Skymiles program), perhaps responding to the outcry Northwest has sent out an email which clarifies that Platinums will still get 2 free changes a year and changes thereafter will be $50. That’s better than the original plan to end fee-free changes entirely, but still a hit.

[W]e will modify the reissue and redeposit fee waiver for Platinum Elite members. Effective March 1, 2009, we will waive this fee for two different reservations per year and collect $50 for each additional award ticket change.

It’s not yet completely clear to me whether this means that two award bookings will have unlimited changes, or whether only one change per booking is allowed with a maximum of waived fees on two award bookings a year. And since the language is specific to a reservation (presumably a single PNR), perhaps the waiver applies to multiple passengers on the same award booking? Again, an open question still to be confirmed.