MilesBuzz! - Change In Carrier Due To Pullout From Market

This is a situation with NW, but I'm posting here because it could happen on any carrier.

The situation: Ticketed on NW OMA-MEM-CSG-MEM-DTW-MSP-OMA in September. Airlink partner will no longer fly to CSG (Columbus, GA). So NW said they 'protected me' on DL. I asked to be flown on NW into ATL and have them arrange for me to fly DL ATL-CSG. They said they will not do that because DL will only take me if I fly them all the way. NW said take that or take a refund.

I am elite on NW and a)have almost 100 percent upgrade success; b)don't want to lose the status miles as I may be close this year; c)have no status on DL and, therefore, will sit in the back of the bus.

I am downloading the NW Contract of Carriage but wanted to seek advice from anyone. Why would NW balk at this?

Oh, BTW, the fare at the time I booked was significantly lower on DL but I had MCO to use and didn't want to lose that. What are my options now?

IMHO, since they, NWA, were the ones who made the changes, they should simply award you the status miles for the route!

Spartacus--
My thoughts follow Doc's reasoning.
Last fall I booked a LAX-JFK-FRA-JFK-LAX on AA. American had a mechanical on the LAX-JFK leg and I would not be able to make the connection at JFK. They booked me on a later LAX-JFK and then booked me on LH for the JFK-FRA leg. When I did not get AA status miles for the leg flown on LH I called AAdvantage. After two calls they overrode the system and gave me the miles. My logic to AA was I booked the flight with you. I paid the money for the flight to you and now you should give me what I paid for--flight to FRA and status miles.
Good luck.

Though AA will sometimes (usually??) give miles for flights that are cancelled, the AAdvantage program terms state that mileage will not be awarded in these instances. In contrast, CO's terms state that mileage will be awarded for a cancelled flight in which you are booked on another carrier.

I would first check to see if Northwest has a stated policy for miles when rebooked on another carrier. Because of the rebooking, you may already be entitled to the miles.

Thanks for the input. Any comments on why they would not want to fly me on NW metal into ATL?

Last year I had a NW flight SAT-MSP-CWA and return. The outbound was canceled and I was protected on UA SAT-ORD-CWA. I also was concerned that I wouldn't get the status miles, but one call to the OnePass Desk took care of that. I got the credit for the original flight, plus the elite bonus. NW gave me the option of flying NW metal, but I would have lost most of the day waiting for the other flight. As DL not wanting to take you from ATL to CSG, I find it hard to believe. I don't think any airline cares if another airline protects the pax onto their flight. Maybe NW doesn't want to pay the extra $ from ATL to CSG.

I've always been successful in getting OnePass mileage credit for flights as ticketed when flight irregularities have put me on non-partner flights.

Delta cannot tell NW that they will only accept one of our passengers if they are booked all the way on DL!

Although the route is faster on DL--OMA-ATL-CSG, if you want to fly OMA-MEM-ATL on NW and then ATL-CSG on DL, that is your choice!

I sent you an e-mail, Spartacus, so get back with me, okay?

Marc