Credit Card Mix

Nowadays when we hear a name of a big company in the news many of us will expect a wave of negative information to follow. However the 9th of December was the day when two of the nation’s biggest companies, Delta airlines and American Express, decided to break the pattern by announcing an extension of their great partnership. They will continue to work together introducing new benefits for Skymiles card holders by incrementing the credit card portfolio and improving features of their co-branded reward program.

Northwest Airlines Joining Delta

Earlier this year Northwest Airlines proclaimed their union with Delta Airlines. It resulted not only in unification of the schedule of flights and their destinations, but also in blending the two main reward credit card programs – WorldPerks by Northwest and SkyMiles by Delta. How does this influence the ordinary cardholder? Especially the one that was saving up WorldPerks?

Amassed points will be preserved and transferred to new reward program offered in the near future. Till that time WorldPerks and SkyMiles are intertransferable. Cardholders can only gain profit by this reform. The number of free bonus flights will grow as grows the number of participating airlines (add to this list KLM Royal Dutch Airlines®, Continental Airlines®, Alaska Airlines®). WorldPerks or SkyMiles can be redeemed on one of 16,000 daily flights offered by participating carriers.

Extending Relationships with American Express

American Express has been Delta’s representative in the world of credit cards since 1996. That year companies offered their first combined product – the credit card with airline reward program and continue to do this till present time. Recently the corporations decided to prolong their partnership that gives the advantages to both interested parties. American Express will have invested $2 billion to Delta Air Lines by 2010. The first half of this amount will be given for purchasing SkyMiles (2009), the remaining half is meant for further contract improvements. Jud Linville, the president and CEO of American Express Consumer Services underlines that cooperation with Delta Air Lines helped American Express to acquire worldwide distinction among cardholders. Delta’s joining Northwest opens new possibilities of covering the area of the Midwest.

Sky Miles was recognized the most successful reward program for frequent fliers in 2007 and 2008. Evidence to this is the growing number of reward program members that will reach 74 million once the WorldPerks will be joined to SkyMiles. Applying to this renovated program can result in achieving perfection in flights – getting the most comfort and service one can dream of!