Vegas Agent could probably give a little better advice, but I think on most predominantly leisure routes, LAS, MCO. That NWA traditionally does not have a lot of Elites flying that route on any given day. An exception could be a convention in town. However, due to this history, they can safely oversell the back by 15-18 people and still get everyone on the plane. All elites and companions get upgrades first, then they just randomly move people to the front. The flight goes out full, NWA sold more coach seats, the bump ups are happy they bought coach and got to fly in first, everyone wins.
Hmmm... I wonder what my (family's) chances are with scoring a "bump-up" FNT-MCO this coming Thanksgiving. Our itin for reference is:
FNT-MCO NW 1546 Nov 21
MCO-FNT NW 1545 Nov 28
I'm a Plat, but neither my wife or two kids (age 4 and 6) are FF's. I "bought" these on miles and used 35K each since one of the legs was premium due to proximity to the holiday. Right now our seats are showing AF,AF,AF,AF - anyone know what preference this is showing for seat assignments in Y?
What I don't want is for one seat (me) to be upgraded while the rest of the clan sits in the back. Since my kids are so young, I want us to sit together, preferably in a pair of back-to-back A-B seats towards the front of the aircraft (they're both scheduled to be DC9's). The kids will enjoy the window seats and my wife and I can stretch out in the adjoining aisle seat.
That is, if we all can't get "bumped" to the front.
D. Mitzel