Well, Norwegian has successfully exited the examinership and reconstruction processes. As promised, the Norwegian Reward program is up and running again. You can now earn and redeem CashPoints on Norwegian flights and extra services like baggage fees again.
However, there are some major caveats.
What this means for you
The good news is that Norwegian didn't devalue the CashPoints program as a whole. One CashPoint continues to equal 1 Norwegian Krone (~$0.12) towards flights and other services. However, Norwegian is temporarily limiting how many CashPoints you can redeem at a time. This doesn't come as much of a surprise as Norwegian warned that it reserved the right to limit CashPoint redemption after restructuring until "the ongoing pandemic is under control and Norwegian’s commercial activities can return to a new normal."
For now, for every $100 you spend on flight tickets, you can redeem up to 500 of your CashPoints. If the total booking price is under $100, you can't redeem any points. You can redeem up to 10,000 points per account per month.
That said, most readers likely still won't get any use out of their points. That's because in mid-January, Norwegian permanently canceled all long-haul flights, including transatlantic flights to the U.S. The airline is now operating a very limited route network in Europe.
On the bright side, the airline has extended the validity of all CashPoints set to expire in 2021 until December 31, 2022.
Related: 5 reasons we’ll miss Norwegian long haul
Bottom line
On the one hand, it's promising to see that Norwegian stuck to its word and resumed its loyalty program. However, ultimately, this news won't mean much for many people. Although Norwegian is extending the validity of CashPoints, it's limiting the number of points members can redeem at a time and no longer offers any long-haul flights.
This is especially disappointing for Norwegian Reward members who accepted CashPoints (with a 20% bonus) in lieu of a refund on canceled flights in 2020. Norwegian now needs to work to regain the trust of frequent flyers who might be nervous about earning CashPoints in the future.
This string of bad news surrounding Norwegian Airlines comes after years of massive growth for the airline. Before the pandemic, the airline beefed up its U.S. presence by offering low-cost transatlantic flights from major U.S. cities to its numerous European gateways. Its route network once comprised of premier routes like Los Angeles (LAX) and New York-JFK to London-Gatwick (LGW). The airline even launched a U.S. cobranded credit card in early 2020.
Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh
Feature photo by Ryan Patterson/The Points Guy
