For several years, we have unabashedly cheered the Internet leadership that the WorldPerks program has shown — and they’ve given us good reason to continue. Since 1998, WorldPerks members have had the ability to book free Northwest flight awards online (a benefit that most of the major programs still do not offer). Now WorldPerks has taken this benefit a step further, allowing members to book free flight awards for its partners, KLM and Continental, as well.

How popular has online award booking been? To date, some 500,000 members of WorldPerks have used the Internet to book their own free awards. Ironically, Continental still doesn’t allow its own members to book Continental awards online.

BONUS: To ensure that online interest in award booking does not subside, WorldPerks has extended its 1,000-mile discount for booking award travel online until Dec. 31. This means that off-peak awards from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 will only cost you 19,000 miles. And you didn’t think you had the miles to enjoy yourself?