I called the CO Gold Elite line for upgrades on NW flights for tomorrow, and the CO agent not only upgraded me, but GAVE ME A NW SEAT ASSIGNMENT!! That's a first for me-- and I'm guessing for other people here, too.

The Northwest automated reconfirmation line verified the FC seat assignment I was given.

Wow!!

Boomer, I'm shocked that DSM-MSP was overbooked-- I went to school in IA and flew those flights like the bus. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif DSM agents knew me (there aren't many 18 year old Golds) and I never had trouble standing by for anything. I rarely saw a DC9-10 more than 75% full. Maybe there's a lot of overflow traffic now that Access Air is gone. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Doc:
Anyone remember the graphic? The model had a black eye.

Just like CO is getting... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif



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

Nope-
I'm silver and get seat assignments on NW all the time.

Another NW trip on a NW ticket and a Thursday morning call-in upgrade for a Sunday flight, this time with an agent who processed the upgrade very rapidly and gave seat assignments. The call took less than five minutes and it appears to me that the experience and the capabilities of the CO agents handling the matter vary widely.

My understanding is that the different call centers (Salt Lake, Tampa, Houston, etc.) have different terminal type capacities, and also, that some agents are trained on the NW system and others still are not. This is what I was told by an employee.

Well, Thurs AM, I called CO, and got an upgrade on my one leg of my NW flight, but the other was sold out. Later that morning, I called NW directly and got a very helpful agent who suggested if I could leave 1 hr earlier (11:05 am rather than just past noon), the earlier one was empty in FC, and I should have no problem upgrading on a standy basis. She also checked my return portions and again confirmed that they were pretty empty, and I should recieve the EUA upgrade from CO without a problem.

Checked this evening (Sunday)and saw that there was one F seat available for our second leg on Wednesday. I could not get it from CO because there were two of us on the same NW record. It was necessary to call NW (a 15 minute hold) to get them to split the record and then call CO back to get the seat. I got it but we can see that it is just as important for all to fly on separate records on NW as it is on CO where the EUA will skip over you completely if there are not enough upgradeable seats for everybody on the record.

Well, as usual, nothing goes as planned. After calling in after midnight 3 days prior to my flights and being given FC seats on NW by the CO agents, then calling back the next day and being told "yes, they are all set". I get to the NW desk for check in and guess what???? The NW computer has no record of any FC seats on any portion of my flights (Gee what a surprise!!). Luckily, there were available seats on three segments of my flights and they waitlisted me on the final portion---but why can't CO and NW get together on this---it's been over a year http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

As Boomer says in this thread, "start fighting." I will add, "don't give up." It is clear that NW releases seats sporadically and, for our purposes, we must regard these releases as random. The last seat for Wednesday that I'd been looking for since 12:01AM Sunday had not ever been available and was still not at 3PM Tuesday when it showed as P3F0. However, at 11PM Tues. bingo, there it was P3F1, and I grabbed it. This was the second time on this all NW trip that a single seat on a heavily booked flight just turned up, and from this we can get some idea of how NW dribbles them out one by one over the three day period. FYI, it still (at 7AM Wed.) reads P2F0.

As Boomer says in this thread, "start fighting." I will add, "don't give up." It is clear that NW releases seats sporadically and, for our purposes, we must regard these releases as random. The last seat for Wednesday that I'd been looking for since 12:01AM Sunday had not ever been available and was still not at 3PM Tuesday when it showed as P3F0. However, at 11PM Tues. bingo, there it was P3F1, and I grabbed it. This was the second time on this all NW trip that a single seat on a heavily booked flight just turned up, and from this we can get some idea of how NW dribbles them out one by one over the three day period. FYI, it still (at 7AM Wed.) reads P2F0.

Viajean Joven--

Where can I find the "The Northwest automated reconfirmation line verified the FC seat assignment I was given" you mentioned in your post?

Thanks.

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JM-CO Plat, Gold various other airlines

Nevermind. I found the number myself. Nice feature of the 800 number.

Whenever using CO Elite line to upgrade on NWA metal and tickets, be sure to check with NWA after the transaction. This morning I upgraded via the CO Plat Elite line, but when I used NWA's automated seat checker, nothing happened. The CO Elite line attendant must have failed to press the correct entry key. Second time worked, however.

JM - My last conversation about this with an agent who was obviously well trained in this matter revealed that at the end of the transaction, the CO agent must do some careful detail and enter it multiple times in order for it to be valid. Therefore, we must still always check with NW as soon as we hang up from CO.