I know I've posted/spoken of this issue in the past, but I'm still torn and need some more advice/info.

I'm about to be frequent flyer again, out of my new hometown airport DBQ. I've decided that NW is my airline of choice (over AA and UA), but with all of the negative talk on these boards regarding Northwest service, etc, I'm still considering making CO my preferred airlines.

Now, fully 80-90% of the flights I take will ACTUALLY be on NW equipment, but would it still be worth my while to claim CO as my airline partner? I know that I can earn FF miles and status on either airline, but CO has a segment Elite option while NW does not.

My big questions to you experts here are:

1. What will I be missing out by selecting CO miles and segment over NW stuff being that almost all of my flight activity will be on NW equipment?

2. How will my upgrade possibilities be affected being a CO Elite flying on NW equipment? Less days to claim them? Will they be automatic, or will I have to call for EVERY one of them?

3. Will I miss out on any additional "perks" offered to NW Elites (i.e. - gift packs, other upgrades, etc)?

Anything else I'm missing here folks, or should I just scrap this whole idea altogether, select NW as my airline travel partner, fly as many mile this year as I can to get status, get a NW Worldperks Visa to supplement miles, and just suck it up?

Help me!

I'm not a frequent flyer myself, but I handle the travel arrangements for 4 CO Platinums here in CO country, Houston. It is my opinion, that based on the fact that you will be flying NW 80%-90% of the time, you should choose NW.

The CO/NW alliance has been anything but seamless from my perspective. I've lost count of how many NW flights never appeared on FF statements, and until you have access to the toll-free elite priority line, to my knowledge you do not have a toll free means of contacting the CO OnePass Service Center unless you are in Houston (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

If you're a OnePass member, you will have to call for upgrades. They are not automatic. And NW has this rather frequent tendency to have absolutely no record of an upgrade. And not only that, it has happened to my travelers more than once that on a NW flight where I have obtained an upgrade for them and the upgrade disappeared, so did their coach seat assignment. Yep, on two different occasions, they went from having an aisle seat in the middle of the cabin, to a supposed seat in first class, to what ultimately became a middle seat in the back of the cabin. Not happy campers, as you can imagine.

Stick with WorldPerks.

In addition, you might have a hard time upgrading from deeply discounted tickets. You'd need to use coupons. You get 4 of them, then get issued 4 more after each 10,000 miles. I'm not sure if you can get upgraded from -26 tickets any other way.

If it were me, and fortunately it isn't, I'd go with WorldPerks.



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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Jon, are you saying that as a OnePass member he would get these upgrade coupons? CO eliminated those coupons on 3/1/99. And what good would CO coupons do on a NW flight anyway?

No, Jon is simply explaining what a CO Silver Elite must do (at least in theory) to get upgraded on an NW flight.

Sheryl offers some valuable experiences, which I would surmise are quite indicative of the less than seamless reciprocity. I know of others who've had similar troubles.

No access to elite seating on NW, as well as no access to the Gold/Platinum line.

I strongly agree that E would be best off staying with WP if most of his flights are NW. I am OP platinum but have had the same experiences with the alliance (blown upgrades, etc.) as mentioned above, although my rate of NW upgrades has been very high. E's biggest problem right now using OP, aside from the one day lag vis- a-vis WP elites would be, until they straighten out the alliance and reconcile the computer systems, the huge amount of time that sometimes must be spent on the phone to get the NW upgrade. If you get a CO phone rep who has never done this before, you are in for a long haul while you and the supervisor educate the agent and even then there still are no guarantees that the reservation will hold on the NW computers. You have to check with NW a few hours after all this to-do and since you don't have a WP elite hotline number (if such exists) wade thru a cumbersome menu until you can get a live agent to the phone.

So to throw a totally new angle at this. What do people thing about having a wife try to go elite on CO while you go elite on NW given that:
1. My upgrades are useless on Delta since I'm only silver, and I can never seem to get upgraded, and I can't upgrade a companion.
2. I fly 70% on NW equipment now.
3. When I travel with my wife it's about 50/50 CO/NW.
Would that be getting the best of both worlds? OR would it be better to try and have elite on the same line for upgrade/ff reward purposes?

If I were in Dubuque, IA (DBQ), I would stick with WorldPerks. After all, most of your connections are going through MSP or DTW, both huge NWA hubs. Upgrades are "rare", to say the least, on the SF340's that service DBQ, and most likely hard-to-get in the hubs of MSP and DTW. However, you do mention an interesting point, segments. You, most likely, will accumulate 4 segments for every RT you make outside MSP or DTW. With that kind of segmentation, you could attain CO Platinum in 23 RT flights. And, at 2,000 miles for 4 segments, you would only achieve 46,000 actual flight miles. I do not know what level 46,000 miles in WorldPerks would be, so your decision would have to be on the highest level attainable in both OP & WP.

I would agree with Sheryl, go for elite on the airline that you will be traveling on most. Remember that there is no guarantee that the relationship between the two programs will remain the same.

Even the fact that NW owns a controlling share of CO stock is subject to change during the period of the blind trust.

E,

I've tried to stick to the three specific questions you asked:

1. If you choose NW elite and fly NW elite, you can get internet bonus miles for booking on their website. You can also get add'l miles for checking in at their automated eticket machines. If you are flying on CO FF number, these bonuses do not apply.

2. If you are a NW elite trying to upgrade a NW discounted fare flight, you get one day's jump on the CO elites trying to upgrade a NW flight. Also, if you qualify for Platinum, the NW computer automatically upgrades you without those midnight phone calls.

3. Regarding other "perks", I am not a NW elite, so I can't offer any advice here. I do notice that the NW companion upgrade certificates mention upgrade-ability on free
frequent flyer award trips. This implies that if you take a number of award trips, NW officially allows upgrades to first class. CO does not allow "free" upgrades on reward trips.

All in all, if the vast majority of your flights are on NW, I would choose NW elite.

Good luck!

I would say that you should go with WP.

1. As a CO elite, you do have access to upgrades, you are forced to call CO and wait for them to call NW. This process does take some time.

2. Although I have not encountered this first hand, I would say that if push came to shove, NW would prefer to deal with thier Elite member over "The other guy's" Elite.

3. You would as a WP Elite, still get to experience the superior service on CO!

Sheryl,

One of the "perks" of being a CO Silver Elite is receiving the "First Class Upgrade for Onepass Silver Elite Members" (PU525) so that you can upgrade when flying on NW. My certs are good through 02/29/00. I have used one of them by calling the CO elite line first then giving the cert to the NW counter agent at check-in. This worked without any problems.

I have not heard if we will be getting new ones for 2000 as of yet. I was also given the same type of certs from AS (PU735) to be used on NW flights.

I am Silver for 2000 and will be flying both CO & NW and hope to make Gold sometime during the year then won't have to carry certs around with me.

Dave