World Perks? Any perks?

Is it prophetic or pathetic that Lady Skywriter joins the World Wide Web the same week that NWA and Delta announce their plan to merge and create THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AIRLINE? Called Delta???

Unlike theirs, my merger with the web does not require justice department approval, nor will it please wall street or hedge fund managers or line the pockets of my executives. My executives?

Will the airline of my past glory, Northwest, become extinct? The only airline in America to have the same name for 82 years? Even I haven't had the same name for that long!

As my friend Jim Moffet would say, "Holy Amelia Earhart!"

Bit by bit, probable changes to life as we know it on the prairie are revealed. Today I learned that my NWA WorldPerks Visa card may be a casualty of the merger and that Delta is in partnership with American Express and its SkyMiles card. Oh dear.

I was immediately transported back to a jewelry store in Lucca, Italy. I had agonized for a week about whether or not I should buy a 14k gold necklace with a roman coin pendant. Day after day I wrestled with this decision and ultimately convinced myself that owning this necklace was a necessity for my future well being. I entered the shop purposefully, identified the necklace and whipped out my American Express card, only to have it spurned by the disdainful shopkeeper. "We don't accept AmEx cards," he sniffed, "their fees are too high."

Alas, it was the only credit card I had with me, being a believer of their familiar exhortation, "don't leave home without it!" Since I couldn't cover the purchase with cash, I left Lucca without it. The necklace, I mean. And when I got home, I promptly informed American Express that their "member since 1984" would no longer be needing their services.

Will I crawl back to American Express to get their Delta SkyMiles card if the NWA WorldPerks Visa becomes extinct along with the Northwest logo? Not unless a certain shopkeeper in Lucca changes his policy.