Last month, Norwegian introduced a new currency, Spenn, in its Norwegian Reward program. That currency is now also used by its hotel partner Strawberry Hotels.

The earn rates on Norwegian flights is identical to what you used to get with CashPoints, i.e. between 1 and 5% of the ticket costs depending on the fare category. The main difference is though that CashPoints had a fixed redemption value (1 point = 1 NOK), while Spenn points have a dynamic value, which is not transparent to anybody – which means that they will probably be less worth in most cases.

But it becomes worse: Spenn is only available to members in the Nordics and only for flights on Norwegian. On all partners, members continue to earn CashPoints and need to decide on each booking whether they want to use CashPoints or Spenn as partial payment since they can’t combine both currencies.

Initially, it was even communicated that members could rather opt for CashPoints than for Spenn for Norwegian flights, but that seems not to have come to execution.

If you live outside of the Nordic countries, Spenn are, for whatever reason, not an option for you and you automatically earn CashPoints only. What might actually be the better solution anyway in the end.

Of course, members are always free to change their address if they really care so much and want to benefit specifically of one or the other option.