Both Delta and Northwest unveiled similar promotions on Friday, offering up to 5,000 or 10,000 bonus miles per roundtrip, with a maximum of ten bonuses. Unfortunately for me (and many, many others) the promotions are targeted, and I’m not one of the “chosen” ones. Based on those posting on FlyerTalk, the targeting seems pretty random. Those Northwest flyers that were targeted report seeing the following on their promotions page:
CO Campaign 10000 Bonus Miles
That seems to suggest that Northwest is trying to retain their passengers that flew Continental quite a bit, given that the relationship is ending in October.
Now, it’s time for some grade-A whining. I understand that the airlines use certain private metrics for determining who’s targeted and who isn’t (blah, blah, blah, yeah right), but why the hell am I not one of them? I mean, seriously! 😀
I’m a Northwest Platinum that has about 15,000 EQM’s with them for the year. That means I’m not flying a whole lot with them. I flew Continental this year and credited to Northwest, so (theoretically) I’m one of the passengers they want to convince to not jump ship. Anyway, not that it’s necessarily in Northwest’s best interest, but I’d do ten roundtrips with them in a heartbeat if I had received the 10,000 bonus miles offer. Sometimes I get the feeling that some over-paid guys at WHQ throw darts to determine who’s targeted and who isn’t.
I really have to wonder whether these types of targeted promotion create goodwill in the internet age, where everything is instantly posted online. Those that weren’t targeted are pissed and those that received the 5,000 mile offer feel short changed.
By the way, I expect we’ll see similar promotions from other airlines later in the year. Maybe not quite as good, but they’re coming.
And that’s my gripe to get the week off to a great start! 😉
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