Richard1148

I was just told to go to Toronto next week. The Delta flights are mostly sold out from MCO, so I checked Northwest. They have good flights available, with "YUP" fares going up, which is an automatic FC upgrade, and H fares back, which are coach. YUP fares are available for the return, but are $400 more than the H fare. If I buy an H fare, will I be able to request FC upgrades on NW the same as on DL?

socrates

Nope sorry....the deal is we (CO/NWA Elites) aren't able to get upgrades on DL and DL Elite's can't on CO/NWA

Richard1148

Thanks Socrates, although not what I wanted to hear. The good news is, though, the H fare has now disappeared and I have approval for the YUP both ways. I have read that NW has a good FC service, so I will see for myself.

socrates

They are very comparible products....and a slight step down from CO (CO offers traditional FC service, warm towels, leather seats, and loves to play games with EUA inventory so elites will never sit in them)

Galla47

Hey,

Acutally, the answer to your question is yes!

You can REQUEST an upgrade, but you might not get anywhere with it. I got lucky a couple times and found a gate agent who read the rules and determined that Delta GMs could get upgraded. I IMMEDIATLEY had him upgrade me on several NW segments. (which he did)

Every other NW agent read the rules and told me that it wouldn't work.

One funny thing, though, is that I had trouble getting the NW upgraded segments to post. In almost every situation, I had to fax the boarding pass to Delta. I don't know what the agent had to do, but it must have been some sort of override).

socrates

The actual code-share agreement between CO-DL-NW is that DL Elites don't get upgraded....but yes as you've found out because Co-Nw Elites do get upgraded on Co-Nw there is alot of confusion out there and you might get lucky

Humaniod

I realize you shouldn't get upgraded on NW flights, but how does traveling on a DL code-share on NW metal? Are you supposed to get upgrades?

socrates

Sorry nope....the rules are applied according to who's metal you're on not who ticket'd you

Canarsie

I suddenly found out that I am going to Vienna on business in a couple of weeks.

I have a feeling I know the answer to the following question, but I will ask anyway:

Is there any chance at all of me upgrading on B fares on Northwest flights to Vienna, especially if the flight from Amsterdam to Vienna is actually a code-share on KLM?

monitor

It seems to make no difference to NW/KL which airline is carrying you. They will permit a mileage upgrade on Y,M, and B fares but, and this is the caveat, the bucket for these upgrades has always been in my experience, severely limited. This bucket is not transparent on the class availability tools, but if you check http://usr.v7.com/wpaa/ you will find out fairly sure which flights have award availability. This is reputed, according to the NW board gang, to track fairly closely with the upgradeables since it appears that X number of seats are held out for sale and Y number are permitted to be used with mileage in some way or other, whether upgrades or awards.
There is another source of information about NW awards which has been created just for the Asian market but I'm not sure how applicable it would be to US originating flights. You can find this one at
http://book2.nwa.com/jp/booking/asp/...ONID=846396066

NYBanker

The reciprocal upgrades (or lack thereof) is an important part of this new alliance to me.

Although I've not seen anything in writing from any of the three carriers, I hold out hope that some point after CO and NW join ST, the three airlines will offer reciprocity to elites.

I've written to DL to share my thoughts on this topic, and encourage other FT'ers to do the same.

akhullar

Many of the KL flights from AMS to destinations i EU are Economy only flights. And even if there is a Business CLass, it is just where they decide to place the dividing curtain

monitor

You are absolutely correct that Intra-European Business Class is not much different from coach on the KL bigjets and since so many of these flights on Fokker Cityhoppers, C class is irrelevant, altho the coach seating is relatively comfortable and the service is excellent. However, I was suspecting that Canarsie was most interested in finding out about the possibility of upgrading the over-water leg of the trip.
I have always been very happy with KL or NW service to AMS ex-NY, however I have always caught the 747s or the DC-10s. The talk on the NW board is that the KL 767s are far inferior comfort-wise in C class to either of the above.

socrates

But one thing to remember...you can only use KL/NW/CO miles to upgrade a flight operated by any one of these three carriers...DL miles won't work...sorry but you can always redeem a F ticket (not an upgrade) using DL miles

run26pointtwo

On July 12, I was to fly SDF/IAH/DFW on CO Express, but was delayed out of SDF due to late arriving equipment so I would miss the IAH/DFW segment. The agent at SDF rescheduled me on next IAH/DFW CO flight which was a 737 with 10 FC seats. I asked if I could get upgraded since I was Delta GM and she said of course, Delta is a code share partner so you are entitiled to be upgraded! I asked her if that was standard procedure to upgrade Delta Elites and she said that had been the case for quite some time. Unfortunately, all seats were already assigned but she put me on the waiting list, in case someone didn't show. But when I arrived in IAH, I checked with the agent, who printed me a FC boarding pass! By the way, I think CO's FC product is better due to newer plusher seats where you can snack on real PEANUTS