Tag Archives for northwest.
A timeshare company is offering 500 Goldpoints for entering their sweepstakes. 500 Goldpoints aren’t worth much — you earn 500 points just for updating your email address every three months — but I figure it’s worth a sales call because every year I transfer Goldpoints into Northwest miles to complete a partner transaction in the Fly Free Faster promo for 10,000 miles… (Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
Northwest is offering double miles (which also count towards status) on Northwest and KLM through October 9th. Registration is required. They say the offer is intended to match a similar one from United, which leads me to ask what double miles offer from United? I haven’t seen one. I can’t find one on the United website. And as far as I can tell it hasn’t been mentioned on Flyertalk.com, which is as close as one can come to saying it doesn’t exist. Maybe their corporate espionage folks knew about one coming down the pike? Here’s hoping…
Last year I explained why airlines instituted ‘fuel surcharges’ instead of simply announcing ‘price increases’. One reason is that customers seem to accept price increases more readily when there’s a story that accompanies the change. Another reason is that surcharges are often permitted in negotiated corporate travel contracts that have fixed prices. The dance that accompanies surcharges leads to some absurd explanations. Northwest has announced that it will no longer ‘absorb’ passenger facility fees (which they have to pay to airports that they carry passengers cross), and as a result will be adding those fees onto tickets. Gosh, I never knew that they were kindly ‘absorbing’ a fee for me. Turns out I was getting something for nothing! Airlines have recently instituted ticketing fees for using their call centers or buying at the airport. One…
Last month I detailed Northwest’s Fly Free Faster 5 bonus. Over the past week I’ve gone through the hoops to earn it. Last weekend I applied for a Northwest Visa Signature, I received the card on Friday . That qualified me for the Fly Free Faster 5 bonus. I promptly registered that credit card to earn Northwest miles at iDine (er, “Rewards Network”) restaurants. Last Monday I transferred 1000 Goldpoints into 125 Northwest miles and 1000 Diners Club Club Rewards points into 1000 Northwest points. This weekend I racked up two iDines with the Northwest credit card. Once those points post, and I receive the Visa bill, I’ll have 5 partner credits and I’ll receive the 10,000 bonus miles. The Visa will provide another 25,000 miles, and I’ll earn about another 2,000 miles from the…
The D.O.C. Optics eyecare chain is offering Northwest miles for a variety of services. It’s been 1000 miles for purchases of glasses, and now 20,000 miles for laser eye surgery in suburban Detroit. (Hat tip to Today in the Sky.) This has got to be up there with the 2500 Alaska mile guarantee from the Danny Schurman Home Selling System.
Northwest’s annual Fly Free Faster promotion is back. You can register now. Fly Free Faster 5 offers 10,000 bonus miles for completing a qualifying activity and earning five partner credits between June 1 and September 30 (so hold your guns and don’t go flying Northwest yet!). Qualifying activities include: taking two domestic roundtrips or one international roundtrip (or four or two one-ways, respectively) on Northwest or KLM signing up and paying the fee for a Northwest Visa purchasing a WorldClub membership I’ve had the Northwest Visa and Northwest Business Visa in the past. I’m going to sign up for the Northwest Signature Visa, a new product, and earn the 15,000 bonus miles for the $90 annual fee. You can earn two partner credits for each of: new service with MCI, EarthLink, Nextel, or T-Mobile real…
Northwest has new offers up for their co-branded credit cards issued by US Bank. I’ve previously mentioned that US Bank is one of the biggest sticklers for one signup bonus per customer. However, a recent exchange with Gary Steiger (of Free Frequent Flyer Miles, where I came across this offer) made me realize that their limit is per card type. I first signed up for the Platinum Visa a few years ago when the offer was for 25,000 bonus miles over 2 years, requiring $500 in spending with Northwest for part of those miles. That signup qualified me for the 2002 Fly Free Faster promotion that netted another 10,000 miles. In 2003 I signed up for the Northwest Business Visa for 10,000 miles to qualify for that summer’s Fly Free Faster promotion. That was a…
Northwest Airlines, which operates a hub at Detroit, has been cited for bringing in beer from out of state for service on its flights. Michigan law requires that beer must be purchased from state-licensed wholesalers. (Northwest serves out of state beer on planes only, not in its clubs which are supplied by local distributors.) Karen Wilson, chief executive at Central Distributors of Beer in Romulus, said her company notified the Liquor Control Commission after some of her salespeople noticed pallets of beer bearing a Minnesota distributor’s name were delivered to Northwest at Metro Airport. Central Distributors has the exclusive rights to distribute Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch beers across much of western Wayne County, including Metro Airport. A liquor commission investigator determined that the airline was illegally importing alcohol into Michigan and was breaking the law…
The two best offers I’m currently aware of are 30 Northwest miles per dollar spent at FTD and 30 United miles per dollar spent at FTD. The Northwest offer is new. The United one has been around a long time. Though the latter says it is for United’s top-tier elites, it works for anyone.
Another reason that I picked Northwest for Best Website in the Freddie Awards balloting — they’ve just introduced online redemption for upgrade awards. Most airline programs won’t even tell you when upgrades are available. Most won’t even display their upgrade inventory buckets publicly in the Global Distribution Systems. They keep the information proprietary and you have to call and and waste tremendous amounts of your (and their agents’) time. Sure, there are workarounds. With United you can search for award travel in expert mode and the upgrade buckets appear (e.g. X is the first class upgrade bucket, I is for upgrading to business class). But nothing replaces good ‘ol functionality, and it looks like Northwest has got it.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
