WorldPerks ticket & strike
 

I am holding a first class award ticket on NW. With the possibility of the strike, I am not sure what my rights are. Does anyone here have first-hand experience with getting rerouted on another carrier if a flight is cancelled and you're holding an award ticket?

I do not think the other carriers will honor an award ticket.
Revenue tickets issued on Northwest will probally be accepted on a stand-by basis only.
With load factors on most major US carriers averaging near 80% this summer, there just will not be enough seats to accomodate all Northwest passengers. I would hate to be holding a ticket on Northwest out of MSP,DTW, or MEM.

no personal experience - but I rember to have read (I think here at Webflyer's homepage) that with awards-ticket you are not rerouted on other carriers - you just hav eto postpone your flight.

In may case, my Swiss-Automobil-worldwide-travel-"insurance" ("TCS-Schutzbrief" in german) would cover my costs (for the return trip with an other carrier, if the strike starts during my travels, and for cancellation costs in general if the airline doesn't fly: hotels, travel arrangements etc.).

Good news for you. Both United and USAirways have indicated that they will accept WorldPerks award tickets without any sort of endorsement from NW. Northwest Airlines has restricted both UA and US to booking NW passengers out 3 days. So, if you are going somewhere for more than 3 days, you will have to worry about your return once you get to your destination.

Also, this is very important...go to your NW city ticket office, travel agent and get any E-tickets converted into a paper ticket. If you do not convert to a paper ticket, you will need to wait in line with the masses at the NW counter in the airport to have it converted to paper anyway.

when is the earliest-possible-strike-date?

I start my next US trip tomorrow (no NW-flights, "only" UA). On one-side-a strike of another airline means fuller airplanes = less chances to sit beside an empty-seat; but it could also mean FULL eco, FULL business with chances for free upgrade for good status clients.

the strike is planned to begin at 12midnight saturday morning (friday evening). as of today, president clinton does not plan to intervene. the talks between airline management and pilots union are still going on, so... it's seems like a pretty sure thing,though, since northwest has already cancelled about 300 flights for friday.

I stand corrected, concerning my earlier post. I have just read the following statement from a Northwest Ad in todays newspaper--"We have agreements in place with most major airlines for the acceptance of Norhtwest World Perks tickets".
Northwest has already cancelled 170 flights on Friday, and anticipate cancelling another 240 on Saturday. A complete list of cancelled flights can be found on their web site.

You are correct about getting tix honored for regularly booked tix and award tix. But if you or anyone you know got NW tix through a consolidator, BEWARE. The same rules DO NOT apply to you. According to a fax my office travel planner received, consolidated tix on NW will be placed in a general queue, and processed on a fare basis. This applies to each leg of a connecting flight and both directions. God help you if you hold any of these types of tix...