Actually not, if you look up page 56 you will find a clear explanation....

Upgrades
Special explanation:
A single upgrade is always a single class upgrade to the next booking class for a single segment !

Actually KLM seems to be pretty clear about the rules, but the agents are not informed upon this.....



[This message has been edited by Threy (edited 01-22-2003).]

Nick ...didn't realise you were in two locators...assume there must be a good reason. That makes it difficult for FD or NW. I don't know how easy or otherwise it is to somehow join the two together....and I imagine you booked on line and not through a travel agent....not sure what to suggest..you need a better brain than mine on this one. I suppose the priority is the segments over the pond....I've still, between you and me ! got a number of NW miles for use in my US account if you think that they may be useful to you.

Same with LHR, only the segments ( flight numbers ) count....

Actually it comes down to the agent deducting the number of points.According to my posts , Nick`s post, your experiences, we had everything from 20k miles to 30k and 40k miles.

AFAIK the "deduction process" is done manually by each agent. So it is random luck, if you get an agent handling the upgrades this or that way, deducting as many points as his knowledge demands.....
You could remember his name and call him every time you need an upgrade....

Another example of poor training and ridiculously bad communication skills.

Threy....doesn't say that at all on my P56 (grey PE handbook)
Special Notes..upgrades are single class upgrade on a one way trip, etc etc...confirmed fares in Economy Class for the flight segment concerned etc etc..Flight upgrades are only available on published routes in our regular flight schedule.
Based on my experience and Nicks info, I go for Region to Region.....unless anybody knows different ?

It was actually a "Threy" translation from the german handbook.

In German the rulebook is pretty clear about the upgrades...

Flug Upgrades:
Besondere Hinweise: Ein Upgrade ist immer ein einziger Upgrade in die n�chsth�here Reiseklasse f�r eine einfache Flugstrecke.

Mike, the problem seems to be the translation.Maybe we should rely on the original dutch version

But actually a "one-way trip" ( English Version ) is a completely different thing than a "einfache Flugstrecke" ( single segment in German )

From an english translation standpoint I tend to agree with Nick, but from the german version there is absolutely no doubt that they mean a single segment....

BTW, a perfect example how ineffective the Helpdesk is....

Still waitig for an official answer from KLM, paging Mrs. Lesley Lindbergh.....

[This message has been edited by Threy (edited 01-22-2003).]

I see....perhaps the moderator would be kind enough to interject ?

Threy: The agent I spoke to on the Elite helpdesk talked to several other agents including supervisor and accounts department, who all seemed reasonably clear that it is one-way trip rather than one segment.
Maybe one of the FD lurkers might help here?

Mike: I suspect that it was on different locator because the DUB-LAX is a KL fare (no bookable NW fare out of DUB) and the ORD-BNA fare a NW one (no bookable KL fare on ORD-BNA). Booked through a TA rather than online (it would've been cheaper online through expedia, but I had to book through a TA because of corporate policy)

What I do not understand is why the NW locator contains the AMS-DUB segment on the return and not the DUB-AMS on the way out.
Had they left the AMS-DUB out of the NW locator, it would have been a return itinerary (I would still have had the problem of the ORD-DNA segments in the middle though)

Thanks for your generous offer, but I can survive the domestic US segments in coach. Keep this handful of miles. You never know when they might be handy ( )Hopefully, some of them will be upgraded anyway through PE status.

[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 01-22-2003).]

Actually, I was told that neither upgrades nor Business Class awards are available on the AMS-DUB flights by EI because (like Cityhopper) there is only one class of service offered on thoise flights (in other words, there is no Business Class, period).

Don't know if this is the case, since I haven't flown that stretch on EI, but that is what I was told.

I followed this discussion with disbelief. Some FD helpdesk agent don't know what an upgrade costs? That is ridiculous.

There are several reports that KLM says you need miles for upgrades on a segment base especially when you fly different airlines.

However IMO this is not true. The only thing I can rely on is the miles-table in the booklet and the wording on klm.com.

On KLM.com in the section 'Upgrades' it's very precise, clear and simple:

And the points table only lists region to region awards and in the same line/column the points needed for an upgrade.

So even the information that flying KL AMS-DTW and connecting to NW DTW-XXX costs an addtl. inner-american upgrade I can't understand from those clear and precise rules.

And anything other is not logical, too. But this hasn't anything to say at KLM I guess...

Ridiculous indeed, but likely true. I've talked to some who don't know what award tickets cost.

But it's not true that an upgrade costs the same as a one-way award! For example, a transatlantic one-way award in Y costs 25,000 miles, an upgrade 20,000 miles, in the new programme. The information you quote from their web site must be a remnant from the old programme.

Nick,
Sorry for the late reply (just registered)
Interpretation 1 is correct, because BNA is the place where you spend most of your time.
Stopovers don't play a role in this case

I wish KL would see it this way, but they don't

Threy, with the introduction of the "region to region" scheme, it doesn't matter how many stretches you have to get from A to B.
It's all seen as a single "segment".

I can assure you they do!