<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nigel-bigel:
[b]Again, thank you. I really appreciate your input. While it's obvious we should concentrate on either NW or CO, I just can't figure it out. It looks like CO is better for his chances of getting upgraded on business trips, but NW is better for MY chances of being upgraded on fun trips. Or... wait. Is it the other way around? I obviously haven't studied this enough! (I need Excederin. Now.)
[B]</font>
As far as
companion upgrade priority, it doesn't matter if your husband is a NW or CO account holder. It does matter what airline you're flying on. CO gives YOU, the wife/companion, a better chance of securing an upgrade than NW, because when you fly CO, NW/CO Plat companions get upgrade priority over all NW/CO Gold account holders and companions. It's worse for you on a NW flight, where a NW/CO platinum
companion is below even a Silver account holder.
Let me amend that to add that if your husband is a CO account holder, you will edge out a NW account holder companion for an upgrade in the event you are competing for one remaining upgrade.
I hope your head didn't explode :-)
A couple other things to consider. If you plan to fly outside the USA, and will be wanting to upgrade such flights, definately go with NW over CO (even though CO has a vastly superior Business/First Class product). CO has rules that make it very expensive to upgrade from cheap tickets when flying internationally (known as HoKeY rules). We're talking hundreds of dollars more expensive.
CO also is among the worst in the industry as far as award availability (what use are miles if you can't use them?).