I used to be a frequent flier mile junkie with Northwest WorldPerks. I played all the games, signed up for the promotions, did the dining rewards stuff, blew time on the surveys, looked at a bunch of ads, continually transfered all my hotel points and most importantly, I paid every single thing I could using my WorldPerks Visa. Over the years, I used that card for everything except for my mortgage. I never carried a balance. I used it like a check card.
The miles racked up. I used to fly for free regularly. When I didn’t fly for free, I knew how to book cheap flights and play the system well enough to get bumped to other flights — thereby getting more free travel.
I liked my situation but a lot has changed with the recent years of problems with Northwest and its unions, the noticeable tightening up of mile promotions across the board, the increased difficulty in booking decent reward flights (I regret flying through Newark a few weeks ago) and the fears of what may happen with Northwest and Delta’s planned merger. Suddenly these games and the $55 Worldperks Visa annual fee didn’t make much sense anymore.
I transferred my rewards from most of the third-party miles programs I’ve been involved with into miles and closed those accounts. I put the renewal date of my WorldPerks Visa in my calendar so I know to cancel before November. Then today, Bill linked me to the last straw on the camel’s back:
The airline will also add a $15 fee to the first bag, a charge that will go into effect July 10. Northwest charges $25 for a second bag and $100 for a third. Checked bags have been a no-charge service for years, but in recent months other airlines have begun charging for even the first checked bag.
A service fee for WorldPerks Award tickets will be in effect September 15 with a charge of $25 for domestic tickets, $50 for Trans-Atlantic tickets and $100 for Trans-Pacific tickets. And a ticket change fee will increase from $100 to $150 starting July 9 for domestic flights and international flight ticket changes will increase by an additional $50 to $150 per ticket.
Two big problems for me here: I’m used to packing with only a carry-on, even if I’m away for two weeks. Now with every other passenger trying to fit everything in one bag, I’m guessing Northwest will need to tighten up their rules as to what flies as a carry-on. On recent full flights I’ve been on, every overhead compartment was filled and many people were packing what they could under the seats in front of them. That problem will get worse. The other issue is paying for award flights. It’s a small price in comparison to a full fare but with everything else added up it’s not worth it anymore.
It looks like I’ll be taking my last reward flight for awhile sometime before September 15 and I’ll be canceling my WorldPerks Visa around then.
My only other credit card is a Target REDcard, where I get a 10% coupon for Target after every thousand bucks or so I spend on it. It’s free. It’s not a bad deal, but I’m shopping around if there’s a better card I should stick to. Does anyone have any good ideas?
This is just my story as a consumer. Over all of this, the real story today is that Northwest Airlines cut 2,500 jobs.
Comments 17
Try the American Express Blue Cash card. No fee, and after you spened $6500 in a year, you go to 1.5% cash back, and 5% cash on groceries and gasoline. I put most stuff on that, and everything else on a Visa.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 15:08 ¶I also like the American Express Clear Card and the Citi Bank PremierPass Mastercard (which I’ve heard other people like as well)
Regardless, I am not looking forward to future business trips. I am wondering what happens when someone needs to gatecheck something? I always end up having to gatecheck my suitcase because I’m hauling something for my job that I can’t lose. Have you heard anything about gatechecking?
Also, as an aside, Air Canada managed to lose my gatechecked bag, which is impressive.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 15:33 ¶A mile used to be worth around $0.02 when it cost 20,000 to fly and the typical booked flight (with miles) was around $400. A mile today is probably worth less since it take 25,000 to do anything, and it’s a huge time suck trying to actually do anything.
I have a PayPal business debit card that pays 1.5% back (immediately) on all purchases. Of course, I have to fund my account first.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 15:36 ¶Erin and I just cleaned out our WorldPerks miles as well and signed up for a AAA Visa card that has rewards. (we were already AAA members). The rewards are various: cash, airline miles, “stuff” in general. I like that its not tied to one airline.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 15:37 ¶I just called NWA to voice my displeasure. I have been doing the exact same thing as Aaron for about the same amount of time. I am almost to elite status this year and am ready to give up the NWA ship. I already have my Ameriprise World Elite Master Card, $125.00 a year and I get free visits to most airlines world elite clubs through priority pass. Plus I accrue Ameriprise Rewards points that are good for most things travel. I love this card and it supports my employer. I am going to use up my NWA miles and call it done with that airline. Anyone know any good third party FF mile vendors I can transfer my miles to?
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 16:29 ¶I paid off and closed out my Northwest Airlines Visa last month. I had already decided that for the annual fee I paid, the rewards were too hard to claim, there really were no more free flights to speak of, not even to major markets. I was also charging everything to my Visa to eek out the most miles, not worth it.
Also, their service has gotten so poor, with charges for food and no more movies, oh and in Seattle their ticketed passengers with baggage check in takes over 2 hours!!
I switched to a Capital One Mastercard, no annual fee, lots of reward choices including multiple airlines, yup I’m happy.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 18:26 ¶As one former WorldPerks junkie-turned-REDcard holder to another, I completely sympathize. You have made a good choice with the REDcard … additionally they have a program whereby 1% of your Target ransactions will be donated to a school of your choice. Worth signing up as long as you have the card. They call it Take Charge of Education.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 20:48 ¶Nick- I actually am signed up for that and 1% of my transactions go to South High School.
These have been a lot of great suggestions. Thanks for all the feedback.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 20:53 ¶I sympathize as well. I have recently switched to Miles by Discover. You can use your rewards to redeem on flights or other rewards. You get double points when you charge flights and other travel related expenses on the card (not including gas). No annual fee. I use this card like a debit card as well - we will see what good fortune it does or does not bring me!
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 06:12 ¶Thanks for this post. I haven’t used a credit card for years, instead just using my Wells Fargo check card for all purchases. But recently I have started to think about the idea of using a card for points, and some of these ideas will help.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 06:17 ¶I decided earlier this year to give up the Worldperks Visa as well. Just as soon as I pay it off, which I’m scrambling to do before my annual fee hits in October. Priority #1 is to get rid of this card.
I still haven’t settled on a primary replacement card. I’m leaning towards the Amex, but you really can’t go without having a Visa, so I’ll probably glom on to the existing Target REDcard account in our household.
Honestly Target seems to be the only rewards program worth having if you don’t travel a lot. Or charge a lot. I travel a fair bit, but don’t do enough of it or enough charging of things to earn enough rewards for seemingly any program to be worth much.
@Moe I was initially moving towards getting rid of using any and all credit cards for anything but emergencies, but I keep reading that the fraud protections are so much greater through a credit card and are practically non-existent for debit cards and that alone may make it worth it to stick with the credit card.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 10:30 ¶@Erica that’s a good point.
Oh, and Aaron, awesome picture up there.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 14:52 ¶It sucks that we really have not a lot of other viable choices for direct flights and are about to get taken for a ride by this whole Delta merger.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 20:23 ¶Just noticed that someone recently asked a similar question on Ask Metafilter: Which Visa card is best
Posted 11 Jul 2008 at 07:56 ¶I think it’s interesting that we’ve come to expect rewards from our credit cards. And interesting that our credit ratings are so influenced by our usage of them. I’d rather stick with Moe’s cash-only approach. And I could (mostly), but our commerce system makes it less rewarding to do so, despite the good sense it makes.
Posted 11 Jul 2008 at 09:31 ¶Hey Aaron,
We have the REI visa and also use it as a check card to pay for everything except my mortagage, which I did try to add, lol. It gets you a 1% dividend that you can spend at REI or wait til July and get back as a check. I usually get over $300 back, not bad with no annual fee. I’m sure there may be better offers with others, but thats my .02.
Mary
Posted 12 Jul 2008 at 07:25 ¶My mom and I are trying to use Northwest frequent flyer miles to go to Hawaii this Christmas. She has almost 43,000 miles, and I have about 18,000. I’m willing to buy up the rest of the miles so that I have the 35,000 required to go to Hawaii… which is MUCH cheaper than flat out buying a ticket. Well, after spending my whole night last night trying to make this happen, my mom and I are completely DISGRUNTLED with Northworst (as we call it in Detroit)… not that we haven’t ever been before this. No matter what dates I put in and no matter what destination I put in (I even put in a roundtrip from Detroit to Tulsa, OK for June 2009 just to see what it would say), the web site claims there is nothing available for the minimum amount of frequent flyer miles that the Northwest Awards Chart claims will get you a *free* ticket somewhere. I’m quite sure that SO MANY people are flying from Detroit to Tulsa and back and already have booked those trips for June 2009!!! We’re completely disgusted with NWA and will never fly it again… unless that is the absolutely last option available to us. We’re going to try and spend those miles to go somewhere, and then we are done with NWA. Things are so out of hand with many U.S. airlines now, and NWA is one of the worst ever!!!
Posted 07 Aug 2008 at 08:06 ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] Two items on Northwest Airlines’ nickel-and-diming: News Cut is brainstorming ways to work around the new luggage checking fees. Aaron Landry explains why he’s breaking up with Worldperks. [...]
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