Is cost going to be a factor in your husband's business flying? I suspect it is, since you cited NWA's usually high fares between DTW and the west coast cities (right now, however, it's under $300 from DTW to SFO).

Going with any other airline instead of NWA for your Detroit-based travel is almost always going to add a connection in. This may be a good thing, in that prices are usually somewhat more competitive when you add in a connection on United or American or Delta (Delta is probably NWA's closest peer and competitor... they periodically have reciprocal fare wars to attract each other's hub flyers).

If price is not a factor, settle back into your NWA seat and enjoy earning your way up to Gold status. NWA Gold is not all that much different from NWA Platinum. You'll still get the unlimited domestic upgrades (which are capacity controlled, they should clear at least on the day of flight), and you'll get 100% bonus miles on flights with Gold vs. 125% bonus miles for Platinums. This is about the only difference between the top tiers. I'm expecting to end up downgrading from Platinum this year to Gold and I'm not sweatin' anything about this.

Since all your husband has so far to prove any status is AW Silver, I suspect it'll be very difficult to get comped to any NWA status. Just saying "I'm going to fly 60K miles" probably won't do it. Plus if the husband is going to be flying on discounted tickets for his business travel, they'll be even less inclined to comp status.

Good luck!



[This message has been edited by DJMeatBall (edited 03-09-2002).]