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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Redeeming Northwest Airlines frequent flier miles for merchandise/gift cards

With Delta and Northwest potentially merging, have been seeing a lot of posts regarding the handling of frequent flier miles in both programs. While using the miles for air travel is usually the best option, not every one has enough miles or need to use it for air travel.

Recently, I received a mail from the US Bank (which issued my WorldPerks Visa Signature Credit Card) stating that it's currently allowing redemption of Northwest Airlines FF miles for merchandise for its members valid through May 31, 2008; the site to redeem miles is Shop with miles. The site actually seems to be operated by SkyMall.

I browsed through the site and the rewards seem decent although they the mileage conversion rate is on the low side. Among the merchandise includes gift cards for Barnes and Noble, Blockbuster, Eddie Bauer and various other merchants. There's also the option to purchase various electronics items, etc.

If redeeming for a gift card, one thing to note is that buying a higher denomination gift card may not always work out to be cheaper. For example, $100 Barnes and Noble requires 17,000 miles while a $200 one can be bought for 38,000 miles. Am not sure why $100 costs 17,000 while $200 one costs 38,000 miles - its better to get two $100 GCs for a total of 17,000 * 2 = 34,000 miles rather than 38,000 miles.

Another alternative to redeeming frequent flier miles for merchandise from a variety of programs is to join the free site, Points.com. That site allows tracking of miles and point balances in one place from a variety of frequent flier and rewards point programe, including American Express' Membership Rewards program. It also allows earning new miles, buying or exchanging miles/points, and redeeming them for a variety of merchandise include gift cards from Amazon.com, Best Buy and other retailers and merchants.

For a list of all awards for redeeming NWA frequent flier miles, see:

Shop with miles

Related post:

Redeeming United Airlines miles for VCR/DVD Player

Labels: mile

posted by Ruby @ 8:21 AM

1 Comments:

At 6:38 AM, Anonymous said…

Cool post as for me. It would be great to read more concerning that matter. Thanx for giving that data.
Joan Stepsen
Computer gadgets

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