Originally Posted by sllevin
If international flying is a significant portion of what you do, it's really silly to fly NWA. They have said that WBC upgrades are not a high priority to them, and they've slimmed down total WBC inventory over time. They've even removed moved 'Rulebuster' WBC awards from J inventory to C inventory so they can be assured that no matter how many miles you have, you cannot get a WBC seat unless they free it up.
Basically, NW is a program that makes sense really for domestic travellers.
Steve
Ok, except it doesn't really make sense for domestic travelers in certain parts of the country either!
Here in Los Angeles, Northwest (the airline) doesn't help with flying to the Northewest (the region)! It doesn't help much with flying to the Southwest either, and when competing airlines offer nonstops to a number of east coast destinations, it doesn't help much flying through Minneapolis or Detroit or Memphis if you're going to Orlando or Miami or DC or NYC or Boston...
Oh, and it doesn't help for flying ANYWHERE in reasonable seats for a tall person (who doesn't have the $$$ to purchase Business class seats outright). OTOH there's the fact that the one flight to Minneapolis I took was the most uncomfortable flight in domestic mainline coach I've ever had. So it doesn't make me particularly want to fly them again (long enough to become elite!) except on upper class awards (earned through partners). But then, I don't need upper class awards domestically, which gets back to the issue of redeeming upper class awards internationally!
