I am in my 5th year as a Silver WP, having never been even close to being a Gold. But I almost always get upgraded to F class since I usually fly on off-peak days. So I took for granted the upgrade on this Wednesday (7/9/03)’s DTW – PDX flight, thinking this must be another not-so-full flight.

To my surprise, the A320 jet was completely booked. That meant there were 150 or so PAX on this flight, of which 20, including myself, were in the first class. Of these, a few must have actually paid the F fare, or were Plat or Gold members, leaving 15 or so First Class seats available for the upgrade. That’s when I realized that there must be more than 15 Silver like me on this plane (out of 150), so the fact that I got the upgrade (and have been getting one consistently) was not by accident but by design.

Does anybody know how NW determines priorities WITHIN the same elite class? It is reasonable to think that a fifth-year Silver probably get the priority over the first-timer Silver. Or, perhaps NW monitors the elite qualifying miles over the past X years and gives priorities that way. Any thoughts?


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Jin Abe