Originally Posted by
ANC RED-EYE
I got the same "no" answer last year from Hawaii NW agents. I'd rarely successfully been able to use the paper certificates, so I was surprised and pleased that it worked and I did get upgraded on the way from ANC to OGG(too bad NW stopped flying that route) - they even offered to upgrade the person flying with me. When I called in and tried to use the 2 remaining certificates on the way back, they told me that the certificates weren't valid for flights to Hawaii, and that NW doesn't do status upgrades at all to Hawaii. When I told her they worked on the way down, she said something like, "I know, but that was a mistake."
This was confirmed by the gate agents checking in in Hawaii - I guess I just count my luck that I got upgraded on the way down at all!
I had a similar thing happen when I flew ANC-OGG in 2005 on NW. I called NW reservations before, told them I had a AS upgrade certificate, they did what they had to do and (I thought) put me in First Class.
I get to ANC the next day and the surly NW agent said forget about it. Sure enough, in the very small fine print, it said that they weren't eligible for Hawaii flights.