Changes to the Coach ChoiceSM Seat Program

NW is committed to the program. elites are now exempt from the fee (24 hrs) out. Sorry NW having to recheck seating 24 hrs out is a royal PITA. Therefore Im committed to sticking with my switch-over to UA.

Here is the full email which I already posted in the earlier thread.

On March 14, 2006 Northwest began testing the Coach ChoiceSM product that allowed customers to purchase a limited number of aisle or exit row seat assignments for a $15 charge. We wanted to update you on this test and respond to some of the feedback we have received from our WorldPerks Elite members.

So far, customer purchase response for Coach Choice seats has been positive. Demand has been strong and has significantly exceeded our expectations. It is clear that many customers value this choice, particularly those who ticket close to departure and otherwise may not have had access to a preferred coach seat. Based on these results, Northwest is committed to maintaining this new option.

As with any new product, it is very important to listen to customer feedback and determine if changes should be made. In response to this customer feedback, the following modifications are being implemented effective April 18, 2006:
WorldPerks Elite customers will be exempt from the Coach Choice charge. Elite customers will have access to Coach Choice seats up to 24 hours prior to departure at no cost. These seats will be available via Northwest Self-service Check-in Kiosks or nwa.com.


The seats chosen for the Coach Choice program will be adjusted. Some of the most popular coach seats, such as row 6 on the DC9, will be returned to the Select Seating zone. Other seats on the aircraft will be designated as Coach Choice seats. Select Seating, which includes aisle seats, exit row and bulkhead, will remain an important component of our Elite member benefits.
Thank you again for your feedback on the product. We appreciate your business and your loyalty.

Sincerely,

Jim Cron
Vice President of Passenger Marketing & Sales

I received the same email from Jim Cron. Good move Northwest!

While I agree this is not a perfect solution. A 36-hour window would have been much better. However it at least shows that the management is willing/trying to work with the Elites, albeit on a scale that will not please all of us. So far this program has not caused me any actual inconvenience�.yet.

Didn't elites used to have access 36 hours prior (having to pay the $15)? Is this saying that we now have access only at 24 hours for free... or we still have access at 36 hours but have to pay?

It will be a mad rush of elites and non-elite vying for the same 6 seats at 24 hours.

Didn't elites used to have access 36 hours prior (having to pay the $15)? Is this saying that we now have access only at 24 hours for free... or we still have access at 36 hours but have to pay?

It will be a mad rush of elites and non-elite vying for the same 6 seats at 24 hours.

Same post in similiar thread.

Great. It's even worse than RC's speculation. Now a 24-hour mad dash for seats. Blech. Even when trying to get it right they can't get it right.

Yo, Jim Cron. Elites should be able to book AT THE TIME OF BOOKING.

How hard is this?

Time to take a hard look at United, I think.

36 hours .. ? I believe there was never a time restriction to pay...

(Have yet to pay extra for ANY seat ^ )
/.

Hey Rich check out the "ua creates new exec position" post on the ua page. It clearly shows where UA wants to go. When you compare it with nw's plan, it really makes you wonder. only 98,500 miles to 1k

Maybe it's not the greatest idea in the known universe. Neither is cattle class on WN. Or CO's 50% EQM crap, which bites me in the ... every time I fly to NY - 'cept I don't have much choice as it's either that or sit in an AA babyjet. NW tried something. First iteration sucked, lots of people liked it, lots complained.

Of COURSE they're after money. Isn't that the whole point of being in business? (Though the way things go with airlines over the last 20 years, you might have fooled me.)

I really do believe they didn't intend to go after elites - much. Look, they're management. They have NFC. I know. I'm management (at a different company). It's DAMN HARD to know what the right thing to do is, or what the right product will be, and you do your surveys and planning and still it comes out bad. And sometimes you ^&*( real hard. New Coke, anyone?

But I also imagine some people still drink Pepsi, even though Coke switched back years ago.

Wow, wouldn't that be... most of them?

In retrospect, if they'd offered CC as seats other than what is currently P, maybe taking away the non-reclining exit rows, it would have worked better from the start.

As far as I'm concerned, they fixed the damn thing, or at least they tried. At least I'd like to believe so - it sounds as if they did, but we won't really know until we all see the seat maps in the system post-change and whether rows 5 and 6 are back. But the language is such that it seems to be the case.

Then all we'd need to see is some sort of "We're sorry" to the elites - even a token 5k/10k miles - as an acknowledgement that "Yes we made a mistake, we can't fix the past, but we can be sorry" (couched in some language with lots of legalese and not outright admitting it) and we can all move on.

As to complaints about being unfair to other Skyteam elites - is it fair that NW elites get upgraded before CO elites, and vice-verse? or that NW elites get squatto on DL? I'm NW plat and while I normally do get upgraded on my semi-weekly RDU-EWR CO run, it's far too often at the last minute so I _know_ I'm well down on the pile. Yeah, I don't like it. But I'm NW plat, not CO plat. I'll choose to be thankful that I get near-CO-plat treatment in the first place. It's still enough that I choose CO over AA. (That and I hate flying those damn AA jumpjets.)

I expect others to do some form of RoachChoice, and I expect that it'll be similarly unfair to the NW elites on other SkyTeam partners.


I imagine the 36-hour rule won't in the end matter much, as for most elites most of the time you'll get a P seat anyway - if they moved the CC seats back, it means there are more P seats, so the number of times you'd have to be concerned about it shrinks.


Then again I really suppose this whole thing hasn't bothered me much anyway - I'm hovering right around 100% on upgrades over the last 100k miles, especially on NW metal, so it's kind of a moot point. And maybe I'm no one to talk, as if I don't get 5 or 6, I really don't care anyway, just give me a window somewhere as it'll take me a half hour to get off the plane because no one knows how to get their mega-bags out of the bins.

(TravelPro FlightCrew2 - the only way to fly!)


NW mgmt, you suck for introducing it and not thinking it through.
NW mgmt, thank you for listening.


--I wear glasses, not blinders, and I try not to jump to conclusions

It was pay-at-36 hours for elites, pay-at-24 hours for everyone (with the seats unavailable to anyone prior to the 36 hour window).

Unclear whether the new rule for elites is pay at 36 hours, free at 24 hours, or whether they've eliminated the 36 hour window altogether.

Regardless, all the whiners complaining that elites should be able to choose at time of booking are simply being selfish. I always book way ahead, but I think it makes sense to hold some good seats back for last-minute bookers, since they generally spend much more than me on their tickets. Keeping RoachChoice but making it free for elites was the correct, proactive choice.

I finally received my "official" email this morning, about 7:15am. Elites waived, CoachChoice moved rearward a bit.

Steve B.

WorldPerks Elite customers will be exempt from the Coach Choice charge. Elite customers will have access to Coach Choice seats up to 24 hours prior to departure at no cost. These seats will be available via Northwest Self-service Check-in Kiosks or nwa.com.

This is more of a trade off than an improvement.

Yes, it won't cost Elites anything to get a Coach Choice seat. But now they'll compete with every other passenger who wants a Coach Choice seat at the same time: the 24-hour window. The only difference is Elites won't pay, and the others will.

The ability to select these seats at time of booking, or even the original Coach Choice option of 36 hours in advance, is gone. Considering how much noise Northwest is making about this change (emails, slipping details to FT moderators early, etc.), this may fall into the "be careful what you wish for" category.

(P.S. And the test may be over, since the e-mail -- which I also got early this morning -- states that, when it comes to Coach Choice, Northwest is committed to maintaining this new option.)

That was how I read it at first. However, I think it means that elite will be able to access these seats UP TO 24 HOURS prior to departure, not WITHIN 24 hours of departure.

Hmmm. I suppose it could be read either way (but I wonder if you really could do this seat selection at an NWA kiosk, as the email states, if it were more than 24 hours prior to departure).

From a bean counter standpoint, it may have been viewed as a fair trade off to give the seats to Elites for free as long as they were competing with those willing to pay at the same time. From a marketing standpoint, it would be better to completely rescind Coach Choice for Elites and go back to advance seat selection of all available seats. The wording is the issue as to which actually prevailed.

But I'm more than happy to have my reading of the email proven wrong by real-world experience.