I have a world business class (Z) seat from EWR to TPE in October. Because of a schedule change (changed time of the EWR outbounad and cancellation of DTW-KIX, they put me on DTW-NRT), my transfer time at DTW changes from 64 minutes to 50 minutes. I am not comfortable with 50 minutes transfer time at DTW, especially out of EWR. I called NWA and asked if I could change my EWR outbound from 12:33pm to 9:01am to make sure I can make my connection at DTW. They said I had to pay a "fare differences" on the change which is more than $1000. She said that according to my orginal schedule, the flight out of EWR is only 3 minutes later than before and they can't change it for free for anything within an hour. I told her my issue is the transfer time which is 14 minutes less and she said she could not do anything about it as the "legal" transfer time at DTW is 30 minutes.

I thought this is just ridiculous. I was just trying to ensure my connection after they changed the flights on me. Isn't it to their benefit that I make my connection so they don't have to rebook me?

I know that my flight from DTW to NRT in business booked solid. This is just a speculation. Maybe they will be happy if I miss the flight and they can avoid paying extra for involuntary bump...

CJ