Yesterday I had a very good phone discussion with a top NWA honcho who I choose not to name.

The problem is REVENUE losses. Specifically:
1-Nearly every other airline does not permit European upgrades from low coach fares. NWA was taking a beating.

2-For example, today you can buy coach ORD/LGW for $350+ & BusClass for $5700; under the old system you could upgrade to WBC for 40M miles. Also today, coach ORD/NRT is $1200 and BusClass is $5600 & you can upgrade to WBC for 50M miles. Thus you can see that NWA was getting nearly 4x CASH revenue on the Tokyo upgrades to WBC vs London upgrades, while requiring similar miles, for the same $5600-$5700 value ticket.
I think you will have to spend in the $700+ area ORD/LGW to get a 40M WBC upgrade.

3-I mentioned all of my concerns - the abrupt announcement - desire to use miles earned prior to 10/99 under the old system - possibly extend the last flying date under the old system to 3/31/00 - possible coupons for Gold/Platinum elites allowing 2 annual roundtrip upgrades at lower fares.

4-I was told that top management is revisiting the issue & that perhaps some sort of "middle ground" will result. In the meantime, I feel that I/we have had the ear at the necessary NWA executive officer level & that we should await further communication from NWA.

[This message has been edited by knowitall (edited 10-27-1999).]