Originally Posted by TNvols
My main question was about flying first class and if you knew a way to sneek in to first class for a cheap rate from say nashville or atlanta or knoxville.
I'm in the same boat as you, though I generally commute between west coast points, which aren't on AA's radar (so UA is it for me). UA is cool because you can actually ride in C on those $1000 fares whenever you want to. If you don't have SWUs, you can trade for them here at 25-30K a piece.
NW simply doesn't facilitate such because they have a lower ratio of C:Y than UA and AA. They sell those seats to the odds of you snagging one are slim.
I can authoratatively state that UA would work well for you based on my own experiences. Furthermore, I have a hunch that AA would be good as well. Just don't bother with NW unless you are prepared to fork over 3k plus per ticket (assuming you want to upgrade).