This summer my wife will be traveling from Korea to the U.S. and back. I am on a B-Class ticket. She is on an award ticket. These are separate reservations and not linked. I have some confusion about upgrades. It would be nice to sit together for the flights (PUS_NRT_LAX_MSP_BDL). It was the only routing to make the award ticket work. But if we link the tickets to sit together, do I lose the ability to upgrade (We would take turns on the domestic segments). We our seated next together on the NRT_LAX, but would like to sit in the premium sections together for better seats. The return is BDL_DTW_SEA_NRT_ICN. Would like some recommendations.

Thank you.

There is no way to actually combine a revenue ticket with an award ticket. They have to be on separate reservations. That said, you may be able to get NW to "link' them by making manual notes in the reservations cross-referencing each other. That shouldn't affect your ability to get elite upgrades on the domestic segments as long as you don't tell them to disable your ability to upgrade. I suggest picking seats you want for yourself with open seats next to you, then calling and asking them to move Mrs. PusanFlyer to sit next to you. Don't both with talk of "linking" reservations or whatever. It will only confuse them. If they give you a hard time, explain that there was no way for you to book together, since Mrs. PusanFlyer is on an award ticket and you're on a revenue ticket, and you'd greatly appreciate their assistance.

I assume you know that the 'premium' seats aren't generally any better than the regular seats, right? There are a few seats that have a little extra legroom (exit rows, Row 5 on the ARJ/DC9/319/320, etc.), but in general the only difference between a 'premium' seat and a regular seat is that the premium seats are closer to the front of the plane.

In my experience, all I did was to pick up the phone and call the elite services line. They were able to cross reference 2 PNRs by making identical notes to check each other. After that was done, adjacent seating assignments were made without hassles.

If you hold status, it pays to call and have human interaction.