fooko2002

I'm flying NW on DL ticket stock. Am I eligibile to use my NW MVP upgrade certificates? I couldn't find clarification of this in the terms and was curious if anyone had an experience.

Thanks!

BLI-Flyer

What a totally useless and frustrating experience I just had trying to get an upgrade. I have two NW flights tomorrow (SEA-DTW, DTW-PVD) and called at 23 1/2 hours this morning. The automated voice system finally connected me to a live person (after repeating "agent" to most of the prompts), but the phone number we get in the cover letter with the electronic upgrade certificates is for customer service. They said I needed to talk to reservations and connected me. Reservations said I needed to talk to WorldPerks and connected me. The person at WorldPerks, after taking the ticket designator number, the certificate number and the redemption code said that no upgrades were availabel. (Can't they just check that first and save us both some time and effort?) She did say that I could call back later and indicated that she had recorded all the information in my file so I wouldn't have to repeat it when I called back.

Tonight I tried again. This time I thought I'd be smart, and since I knew from this morning I needed to talk to someone at WorldPerks, I promptly said "WorldPerks" to the automated voice. The voice then asked for my WorldPerks number and said to press "#" if I didn't have one or didn't have it with me. I did, and it said "Sorry, you need a WorldPerks number to access this service" and hung up on me!

Well, I went back through the system again and ended up with someone who again took all of the code numbers and certificate numbers (apparently they were not attached to my reservation as I was told this morning) and then again told me that no upgrades were available but that I could try again on my return flights later this week. Right.

What a useless "benefit" this has been for me!

Stripe

SEA-DTW is traditionally a tough upgrade even for higher level NW elites. For any flight there may still be F seats available but, unless the loads are light, the R bucket often gets zeroed out before the 24 hour window. The seats are being held for late sale or for upgrades at the airport. Some R seats occasionally pop up within the window but get quickly grabbed in OLCI by NW or CO elites. If your certs are like the ones they give NW platinums to use on AS you technically can't use them at the airport but you might try anyway. You might get a sympathetic GA or TA to add you to the upgrade standby list. And if you are a Board Room member and can get into the WorldCLub you may have some luck with the reps there.

I will admit that if you don't have status on NW the phone service can be frustrating. If you have access to a tool like ExpertFlyer or KVS you can check the R bucket to determine whether calling will be worthwhile. As I write this there is no R space available on any SEA-DTW or DTW-PVD flights today.

My experience redeeming my NW certs on AS has been just the opposite. I always get a person very quickly on the normal reservations line and they usually have been able to process the upgrade without a fuss. The only exception was a phone rep who said I couldn't do it but I just called back and got someone who could. Of course, there was plenty of U space available on each of my flights.

warmstor

I successfully used an upgrade on NW 165, MSP-SEA. I called (actually, Ms. Warmstor called for me, since I was driving and had bad cell coverage) about seven hours before the flight.

They immediately booked me into first, and told Ms. Warmstor to tell me to just bring the certificate to the airport with me. Obviously, this doesn't work, since they are e-certs/codes. I was a little nervous, since I had an outstanding Y seat (14B on a 753) and feared getting to the airport, being told the F upgrade wasn't going to work, and then having less choice among Y seats on what looked to be an entirely full flight.

My fears were unfounded: I had to get a BP from an agent, which took a bit of walking to find one near a self-check kiosk, but she did it in about 10 seconds, and didn't ask me for the certificate number, redemption code, reference code, blood type, or any of the silly codes they attach to these things.

An interesting question remains open: whether they actually deducted the certificate from my four. I kind of doubt it, since neither Ms. Warmstor nor I ever provided any numbers.

As a note, I was told no seats were available for the SEA-MSP outbound, at 23.5 hours beforehand, and I didn't have the time or energy to call more than once.

formeraa

This is very similar to the problems that CO and HP used to have, when they were partners. Typically, the smaller carriers (AS or HP) know how to handle all the issues presented by the larger carrier (NW or CO). However, the reverse is not true. For AS agents, they have a fair number of NW customers and know the drill. For NW agents, they handle very few AS passengers and, therefore, have no clue of what to do.

tikiboy

I used an upgrade from Sea-MSP-YYZ on a Tuesday flight. I called the about 12 hours before and was very suprised. I guess miracles do happen.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to upgrade on my return, but my MVP status allowed for some choice exit seats on full flights.

BW Flyer

Used two upgrades certs on NW flights last month (one was SEA to DTW on red-eye). It took me a while in both occassions, but the agents figured that out eventually.

BW

brarrr

only took 10 minutes on the phone, most of it spent navigating the tree to end up talking to the right person... and got sea-mem upgraded for tomorrow. no difficulty other than her mis-hearing my enunciation of L (P?) and 9 (2?) which threw me...

mthoodfan

What an experience using the certificates. Having recently moved from the PacNW to the Midwest, my use of NW as an air carrier has increased. In June I flew from MDW-DTW-PHL and was able to successfully use an upgrade certificate for that routing (my flights back, HPN-DTW-MDW, were not successful, but the HPN-DTW is NW Airlink anyway, so the 40 minutes from DTW-MDW was fine in Y). However, my luck changed on my next set of flights. In early July I needed to travel from MKE-MSP-BOI for a funeral. I purchased the ticket the night before the flight and immediately after booking it online, called NW to try and get an upgrade. I spoke with the agent, gave him the reference and certificate codes and was told by him that I'd successfully upgraded. The next day my brother and I left and I flew from MKE-MSP-BOI in F. I didn't think twice about the situation until a few days later when I checked my credit card statement online and noticed that my $400-ish ticket on NW had been billed to my credit card for over $900! I immediately checked my e-mail and looked at the receipt from NW. The receipt I had in my e-mail had the total in the $400 range. I then went online to check my intinerary (I had only flown to BOI, hadn't flown back yet, so the reservation was still available online). At the nwa.com site you can look at your receipt for the trip, so I did that and it had the $900 price. I looked at my flights and noticed that I was booked in F-class for the MKE-MSP-BOI flights and K-class for the BOI-MSP-MKE flights. I immediately called NW to figure out what had happened. I explained to the agent my situation and after 45 minutes on hold, the agent came back and explained to me that the original agent had not actually processed the e-certificate, but rather reticketed me in F-class for the MKE-MSP-BOI segments, thus causing the $500+ increase in ticket price. To NW's credit, the agent credited my credit card back the correct amount and I was also able to convince her to change my return flights to better times (when I originally booked, I just booked the cheapest flights, which happened to have horrible flight connection times). No other compensation was offered, but I didn't ask, I figured that I did get to fly F-class from MKE-MSP-BOI. In the end it worked out, but I post this as a heads-up to be aware. The e-certs are a much bigger hassle than the original paper certificates, but maybe that's because NW hasn't exactly trained their representatives on how to use them. Not being able to use them at the airport, or at least being able to get on some sort of standby list, is also annoying. If only I could do it myself online! As an end-note, the flight back, BOI-MSP-MKE was not without strife, either, I was diverted on the flight from BOI-MSP to FAR for 3 hours and for that flight the upgrade wasn't available! If only AS was in the Midwest, or I could move back to the PacNW...

brarrr

Flight a week and a half ago sea-mem was upgraded as noted above and was no problem - worked great and wasn't much of a hassle.

What was great was AMS-SEA yesterday, I was able to talk my way into world business class, on a discounted economy fare. Took about 6 tries but eventually was able to get the upgrade based on either 1) they moved me from great seat to back of the plane for no reason 2) MVP card in hand 3) she wanted me 4) I knew how many wbc seats were open

who knows....

IStream

I tried to do the same thing a couple of weeks ago. All of your conditions applied to my trip, including #3 but with the exception of #1, and on a last-minute Y fare to boot, but no go. I told them that I'd been upgraded on the SEA-AMS route for a $250 fee and offered to give them the same amount to get it on the way home but they didn't bite. I guess they preferred to have 5 unoccupied WBC seats rather than 4 empties plus $250. Gotta love those legacy carriers...

beckoa

I've had a 50% success on my 6 NW flights this summer July 26-August 1-August 6, overall a success, since 2 were fairly long. My trip was ANC-DTW-IND-DTW-MDW-MSP-ANC, and I got an UG on the ANC-DTW, IND-DTW, and MSP-ANC legs. (The DTW-IND leg was on a packed coach commuter, so no chance for an UG...) overall, then 3 of 5 upgradeable legs, or 60%. The flights to and from ANC were quite nice, and I enjoyed the menu selection. There apparently was a catering mistake too on the ANC-DTW, so I had a choice of 3 entrees, a Mexican dish, pasta and Chinese. I chose the Chinese, and was pleasantly surprised. On my return from MSP-ANC we also enjoyed the Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, a very nice touch. So I am overall pleased with my results from the NW program. Granted the market I fly out of is mostly leisure (I assume) travel, especially with the red-eye flights and all. So thanks AS for a great trip on NW. Gotta love seat 2B.

Some NW agents understood my request, others I had to "instruct" on how to use the codes...overall good instructions from AS.

Gustav

Called NW this morning 23 hours prior to my SEA-MSP leg. Agent sounded slightly confused, put me on hold, returned to inform me that F was sold out.
Seatcounter showed four F seats available? So.........?

BW Flyer

Happened to me earlier this month as well on MEM to LAX. On 23 hours out, it showed F3, but no R seats available when called. I guess they were holding those 3 seats for late sales or gate upgrade, and this had happened to me in other occassions as well (SEA to MEM, DTW to MEM,.....) So I think this is fairly common.

BW

NOLAnwGOLD

So NW learned to have an "R" class which upgrades come from in First from CO. Because NW has automatic upgrades for NW CO and KL elites, the computer often grabs all the available R seats as they open up. Hence AS certs come in almost last (the last is the Plat & Gold companion upgrades at the gate). Also, for West Coast flights, it's really hard to get upgrades as Gold or Plat on NW already so by the time 24 hours comes, most of the FC seats are already taken. One or two are usually held for last minute buys.

Do your cert allow upgrade at the time of ticketing for full fare?? Don't forget about that.

Flying AS this week, hopefully my e-certs will work out....haven't done this since the paper certs that you could only do at the check-in counter.