I've got my first flight as a NW Gold on Friday. I'm flying DCA-MEM-LAS (NW1865 to NW525) on Friday. I figured the EUA should have gone through at midnight last night for this flight. Currently, F is full for DCA-MEM, however, MEM-LAS still has several seats left on it in F & the WP Elite line said that there's R-class availability.

I asked them about the EUA & they said that it should have been run last night & that my reservation does reflect my Gold status - they told me that there wasn't anything they could do about it. Will it run again tonight at midnight for that flight or will it only run again when the Silver window runs?

Thanks!

I'm also on those flights on Friday. I'm a Platinum and I also didn't get DCA-MEM; it looks like there may not even be revenue seats available at the moment. MEM-LAS cleared for my non-status companion & I at the regular interval, and last night LAS-IND on the return cleared for both of us, again at the same interval (5 days shortly after midnight).

My experience has been that the system runs several times throughout the day and will keep trying for you. I've never been passed over for a lesser-status pax on NW (on CO however...that's another story!). Judging by the current loads I don't think you'll have a problem pulling these.

We'll be in the WorldClub at DCA before our flight. With luck there will be a couple (or more) no-shows and F will open up for the first segment. Good luck!

I'll most likely be there at the WC about an hour or so before hand - possibly even earlier as a coworker will be flying out around 3PM & I may just take her to the airport & get her into the WC. It'll be good to finally meet you!

Hopefully the upgrades will process tonight - I'm not too concerned about DCA-MEM because I'm in an exit row, however, MEM-LAS is not a flight I want to be in Y for!

...duplicate...

Good luck with the gold EUA. Coming up through Gold last year (and Silver the year before) I've only missed one segment on Northwest - as a Gold, and ironically, it wasn't a "premium" route but a only DTW-BWI flight which should be no problem but happened to be a busy morning...

Though I'm also holding my breath for DCA-MEM.

None of my flights for this weekend has cleared. When I called last night the agent told me that the Gold status was still showing (since when I booked in July) even though it was showing plat online. She re-removed my number and reinput it, after i'd changed to my CO # then re-entered NW # online. Availability tool was still showing R4 on 3 of 4 legs this morning.

>>>>I've got my first flight as a NW Gold on Friday.

Me too. So when EUA did not go through by 6am today I figured my PNR was defective somehow. So I called the Gold line and the agent suggested I wait till tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and then call back if it still hadn't called through.

I got impatient (after reading the FT threads about early Silver/Gold transitioned PNR's not running, and one Plat PNR being passed over completely) so I called back around noon saying that I was concerned that my record was getting ignored for some systemic reason.

After being put on hold for a few minutes, the agent told me that she had upgraded me for this Friday (there was plenty of R-bucket space on the MSN-SFO flights) and that it was probably not a problem with my transitioned records, but instead that there have been problems since New Years with EUA.

She said the return should probably go automatically, and my other 11 records booked as a Silver for travel as Gold in 2005 should probably be o.k., and I thanked her and told her I'd keep checking.

Browsing through upcoming itineraries today I also noticed, in passing (and I check fairly often), that several seat assignments on itineraries within the next two months or so had popped out and were showing as N/A. I got all but one of the 5F seats back, but in one case my previous 5F was gone, and I had to settle for an exit row. Thank Gawd my row 10 seats on the A330 to London in March were still there.

I would like to add, that having flown segs that included the MEM-DCA segment for several months in 2003, as a Gold, upgrades were VERY hard to come by. DCA seems to be one of those places that are atypical and are very difficult to upgrade on, for whatever reason...

Good luck, though!

...and still no upgrade as a Gold.

There are still 3 open seats showing on the seatmap at NWA.com - the agent I spoke to on the elite line said that there's no R inventory left. Galileo is showing:

GALILEO

FRI 14JAN05 MEMPHIS /LAS VEGAS *NW
MEM LAS 1940 2118 NW 525 P4 F4 Y4 B4 M2 H0 Q0 VC LC TC#320*C

and when I search specifically for R class, it's showing:

FRI 14JAN05 MEMPHIS /LAS VEGAS *NW
MEM LAS 1940 2118 NW 525 R1 AC WC 320*C

So, it appears that there's at least 1 R seat left!!!

...and there's even more R-class availability & I'm still in the back of the bus!

FRI 14JAN05 MEMPHIS /LAS VEGAS *NW
MEM LAS 1940 2118 NW 525 R2 AC WC 320*C

My call to NW last night resulted in no upgrade...maybe a call this morning will?

3 calls later...

I got a NW Elite agent who was willing to help - she said she has filed a report with their helpdesk people & that they have reset my reservation. At the next EUA (whenever it runs), if there's still R-class available (and there's 2 seats), the upgrade should go through. I've got my fingers crossed!

So, R-class is no longer available - there are 2 seats left on the seat map. Called the Gold Elite line to see if they could manually process the upgrades - they said they would not do it.

The weird thing is if you try to book an seat in first class, it brings up an R-class fare basis code on NWA.com. This is a pretty disappointing first flight experience as a NW Gold.

I called this morning around 7ish and the agent manually up'd me on 2 of my 4 flights this weekend. She couldn't do it on the other two as R wasn't available. All I did was explain that I didn't get the plat sweep and didn't get up'd at the gold sweep last night.

Hmm...that definitely didn't work for me this morning - I'll keep checking the R-class & see if they open it up again. The disappointing thing is that the availability went from R1 to R2 and is now at R0 - hopefully it'll open up soon & the two F seats will still be available at the next sweep.

We have often found that EUA does not run exactly.

Sometimes it runs the day before. Sometimes one or two days after. Depends on a whole lot of variables I don't know about, I would guess.

As a pair of platinums, we have never ended up with both of us not upgraded.... and I take the hit the few times we go 1 for 2. (Then GG usually sends me back a drink!). And the couple of times I've ridden in the back have been last-minute or reroute. We have never missed DCA in three round-trips, all through Detroit.

As a gold, you will find that your mileage may vary. Go for those extra miles to have platinum insurance!