uibd

I'm a newbie to NW as I'm switching from UA to NW for most of my travel and just got a status match to NW Gold. I've got a ticket booked under a YCA (government) fare for a trip next week. My understanding is that full fares can try to upgrade immediatly upon booking. As my booking was done thru a travel agency, it obviously did not happen then. I've called NW and they act like I'm an idiot for asking for such a thing and tell me I have to wait for the NW Gold upgrade window. Do YCA tickets not qualify for upgrade? Am I missing something else? Thanks.

rdg_dc

Which route did you find a NW YCA fare on? I thought United (and Delta, to some extent) had those contracts wrapped up.

uibd

I'm going to do a lot of flying into Little Rock, AK. My routing is MLI-MEM-LIT.

NWA_Flyer1

I would not worry to much, as a Gold you will likely get your upgrade to LIT - all 30 minutes of that flight. MLI to MEM is in the "Jungle" so no upgrades to be had on those runs.

Enjoy NW!

robbert

Government fares are offered under a special contract. They are fully refundable for instance, but I don't think they allow confirmed upgrade at ticketing like the regular Y fares. You can book them on fairly full flights though and hope the flight sells out (and bump).

TrayflowInUK

Interestingly, it just says "full Y fare or -26/-27 type fare," doesn't specifically exclude government fares. I thought there was a whole list of excluded fares somewhere but can't lay my hands to it.

Sometimes I really wish airlines (not just NWA) would publish comprehensive lists of rules about everything from lounge access to upgrade policies to what your elite benefits really are. As opposed to a bunch of marketing fluff, fragments on different web pages here and there, stuff you get in emails, and of course the information that the telephone and airport agents get!

BobH

Govt. fares are contracted by city pair and depending on where you are going you may or may not be on a given airline These tickets are usually booked by travel agencies and if you didn't give the travel agent you NW number, your chances of an upgrade are nil.

Once upon a item, Federal employees didn't even get to keep the miles they earned when travelling on govt. business.... the points went back into a pool and were used to buy tickees for other govt related travel.

Bob H

hazelrah

A government (YCA) is not a fullfare "Y" and thus is not eligible for immediate upgrade.

Gov't fare is typically 50% or less of full-fare.

LAXRuss

Unfortunately, I do not believe NW categorizes their YCA fares as a "non-discounted fare" in contrast to both United and Continental-- what I mean to say is that both UA and CO seem to categorize their YCA fares as full-fares for upgrade purposes. With a domestic CO YCA fare, they will upgrade you as an NW elite at the time of booking, just like NW does with full Y and Y 26/27 type fares. In addition, both CO and UA allow YCA travelers to upgrade their tickets domestically and internationally using the reduced upgrade award mileage levels available for full fare tickets. I believe this not only costs less mileage but also means that award upgrades are more readily available in a less restricted fare bucket. For instance, I can virtually always obtain a 15,000 mile one way business class upgrade from the U.S. to Europe on United confirmed at the time of booking with a YCA fare. Last year I called NW Elite Services about their policy with international YCA fares and they seemed to indicate that they changed their policy in recent years to categorize YCA fares as a discounted ticket and that they would now require 30,000 miles one way to upgrade for flying on a YCA ticket transatlantic. With 30,000 miles on CO or UA, you can upgrade roundtrip to Europe on those routes where the carrier has the YCA fare. (However, with UA you have to currently fly on a UA operated flight and you move to the back of the economy bus when you board a Lufthansa connecting flight in Europe; NW upgrades through to destination on NW/KLM flights.) However, NW's 30,000 mile one-way upgrades also seem to be so restricted that I have never had much luck confirming such an upgrade more than a few hours prior to the flight's departure.

Not sure if NW and CO open preferred seating for non-elite YCA travelers, but United seems to offer non-premier YCA travelers economy plus seating as well.

I know your options to choose carriers are limited because you must fly the contract carrier. I have never flown NW on a YCA fare, but I would call Elite Services another time or two just to confirm that they really do not provide elites with automatic upgrades as Continental does. The elite services agents do not always have experience with government fares-- some have encyclopedic knowledge on the subject and some may draw a conclusion without really knowing the ins and outs. In those few instances when I have had official reasons to book a NW matching domestic government fare through a government travel agency, I have had the impression over the past ten years that NW has reduced the number of routes where matching fares are available and then made them more restricted by offering them in K class rather than in Q class as once seemed to commonly be the case. My personal suspicion is that NW's interest in business for government travelers is focussed mainly on international routes to Asia and those domestic city pairs in the U.S. where they are the dominant carrier and can demand top dollar from the government.

Last year I had occasion to fly a number of times on a city pair where Alaska airlines had the YCA contract. Alaska happily counted YCA as a full fare and I was always able to confirm my upgrade to first class at time of booking using the NW upgrade coupons for AS that NW Elites can request each program year.

One last tip-- you may want to always try to have your government travel agency fully issue your YCA ticket before you come into NW's five day upgrade window. I have had experiences in the past where NW upgraded me five days out and the government travel agency subsequently downgraded me when they issued the ticket prior to my flight because the government organization funding my travel does not want first class to appear on any air ticket or travel itinerary, even though there is no problem with courtesy upgrades. Thus, in the case of CO flights, I always had the YCA issued in economy and then immediately called CO for an automatic full-Y upgrade.

In any case, as you transfer your travel from UA to NW, the distinct advantage you will find on NW as Gold Elite domestically is the free advance upgrades you will receive on most NW flights. You know there are few mileage free upgrades as a Premier Exec. The 2,000 mile UA upgrades you receive for flying 10,000 miles do not even provide a one way upgrade across the country. Enjoy your NWA flights!

socrates

Full fare Y for NWA is a -26 or /-27 fare, there are discounted Y's out there

kreeft

My boss flies on gov't rates MSP-DCA-MSP pretty much every week, and they never book into Y. He's a Plat and the NW desk that he gets booked through pretty much finds upgrades all the time though for him. Get to know whoever at NW books you and you'll get help.

TrayflowInUK

Are you sure? What about fare basis code "Y" or "YOW"? Aren't these full-fare?

CGNC

No immediate upgrades on the YCA fares...found that one out the hard way.