 Effective October 1, 1986, the Republic Frequent Flyer Flyer was merged into the new Northwest Airlines WorldPerks program.In 1986, Northwest Orient Airlines announced on January 23 that they would buy Republic for $884 million in response to United Airlines' purchase of the Pacific routes of Pan American World Airways and to provide domestic feed.Opposed by the Justice Department, the Northwest-Republic merger was approved by the Transportation Department on July 31 and was completed on October 1, with Northwest dropping the word "Orient" from their name after the merger.