Fee for upgrading B class on NW?
 

Hi,

I was trying to upgrade a NW B class TATL flight using CO miles. The agent told me that I would need to pay a $300 fee. NW B class is like CO's H class which is upgradeable for free, except for $200 for Hawaii flights. Was the agent mistaken?

Thanks,

Sandeep

As far as I know there are no fees to upgrade NW fares. It's been a while since I've upgraded a NW fare, but I've bought NW B fares before and upgraded them with no fee.

There shouldn't be a fee, but the difference may be due to the taxes for your new itinerary. When I upgraded a B fare LGW-DTW, I had to pay nearly $200 in extra taxes for my "free" reward.

This is a common mistake made by CO agents. NW does not charge any fees to upgrade to WBC, but they restrict which fares are upgradeable to WBC (any fare is upgradeable to FC with miles).

Hang up and call again until you find an agent familiar with the rules. It's likely they will need to put you on hold and call NW to process the upgrade.

The last time I did this for a Hawai'i flight, I called NW, confirmed the upgrade seats existed, called CO who said it didn't, had CO and NW conference to find the seats did exist, then waited on hold endlessly while they processed the upgrade with my CO miles.

Upgrades to WBC are only valid from Y, B and M fares (Y/B only to/from China).

Incorrect! Only Y and B fares are upgradable.
"Effective March 1, 2005, WorldPerks mileage upgrades for trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific itineraries are only available on eligible paid Northwest Y and B type fares, Continental Y and H type fares, and on KLM S and B type fares."

OK...I stand corrected. Either way, there is no fee, whether you're using CO miles, NW miles, DL miles or any other partner miles.

No fee when upgrading NW B class
 

Just wanted to answer my own question. I was able to upgrade B class on NW and didn't have to pay a fee.

Thanks,

Sandeep

Gee, CO's co-pay system seems rather generous.

Not really. Do the numbers. If you buy a discounted ticket on CO and pay the fee to upgrade, you end up pretty much paying the H fare anyway (which has no fee)...without the benefit of the 50% EQM bonus. The advantage to the CO customer is that if the BF upgrade isn't available, which it almost never is, you don't have the pay the extra $ and still sit in Y.

I reached here through Continental FAQ - and want to ask a few questions.

So, if I want to use my OnePass miles to upgrade NW Trans Pacific flight, I understand I need to buy NE Y or B fare and call OPSC to use mileage. Questions are:

1. Do I need to buy the ticket from Continental? Or any source (NWA.COM, NW ticket sales via phone, independent travel agent, corporate travel service, etc.) is OK as song as ticket is Y or B?

2. From NW WorldPerks award chart, US to Asia requires 15K/30K for Y/B one way, while OnePass Series 4 reward requires 12.5K/25K for Y/H. Does this mean, if I have enough miles on both WorldPerks and OnePass, using OnePass mile is smarter?

3. If Z fare is available, upgrade using OnePass mile happens immediately?

1) you can purchase through any channel
2) WP Award chart only applies if you are using WP miles so yes it would be cheaper to use OP miles given the info you've included
3) sorry can't help on this one

Thank you - these cleared most of my primary concernes.

Let me break down my question #3 - hopefully someone who did this could provide answer...

From Northwest Forum Wiki/FAQ : "Upgrades from "full" fares require Z availability, upgrades from "select" fares require U availability (I prior to 12/5/2006)."

Q3a. If I have Y fareclass ticket and there is Z bucket available, or having B fare and U bucket is available, can I confirm upgrade immediately when I call OPSC and request upgrade?

Q3b. (I may need to post this one to NWA board) If U is not available right now on the flight I'm planning to pick, will it be like that forever? Or are there any chance U becomes availabel later on and I could be waitlisted for upgrade, like current CO's BF upgrade for the most of the flight?

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3a - Yes. If the availability is there you can confirm it immediately.

3b - I am almost certain that you cannot waitlist using CO miles for a NW upgrade.

That is true.