A different upgrade experience
 

WifeMSN and I did the following on a little 5-day weekend:

MSN-MSP-PHX-MSP-MSN

25K miles award tickets. Cost: $20 + 50K miles.

I'm PLT, wife nada.

MSN-MSP: Both upgraded at online checkin.
MSP-PHX: Put on upgrade list at checkin. #1 and #2 on list when we get to the gate. Both of us upgraded at the gate before boarding.
PHX-MSP: In 6D and 6E and the GA came on and moved us up.
MSP-MSN: #1 and #2 on the waitlist. Upgraded at the gate before boarding.

Good for you!!

What airline? DL or NW?

NW. And the waitlists had quite a few people below us, too.

A nice benefit for sure.

Wow, interesting. When did they start upgrading award tickets? That wasnt supposed to start until 2010.

I've flown on DL and NW metal on award tickets in the past 6 months, and each time asked (in vain) about upgrades only to be flatly told that my tickets were not eligible.

Beats me. I didn't approach anyone. What seriously surprised me was the companion upgrade on the award ticket. That's never been automagic like it was on this trip.

What fare class were you two in?

W. It was a 25K award ticket.

Duh. I think I may have read that somewhere earlier in the thread. :)

That's really interesting, because the new companion upgrade program is not supposed to work for LUTs, even. The upgrade on your ticket is less suprising, because that functionality is supposed to happen eventually.

...who are now miffed upon reading that a non-status passenger got their upgrade. :p

They can feel free to vent. I like to vent on occasion.

Or they can fly enough to be top tier. I'm sure that if there were PLTs on the list, they would've jumped us. Of course, I could be wrong as I don't really seem to know the rules like I used to. I never once imagined we'd get upgraded at all, let alone on 4 of 4 segments.

Northwest has been upgrading award tickets and NW elites have always known this. It is not new. However, it will probably go away, temporarily, once the intergration is complete and come back again with the new skymiles benefits "sometime" in spring 2010.

I had a similar experience. Booked a very last-minute trip on Tuesday using miles to fly MSP-EWR on Wednesday (to go to the world series game last night). When I checked in, I was offered the upgrade. Upgraded at the gate. I was #3 of 11 and I believe there were only three available seats. On the return this morning, also offered an upgrade, #1 of 1 on the waiting list, upgraded at the gate. F went out with 1 open seat. So NW is apparently still UG'ing award tickets.

I know, but companions on award tickets? That's new for me.

oh true on that one. you would think a plat would have dropped down below silver with the companion and free tix. Nice to know otherwise. filing for future reference.