Silver is nice and better than nothing, though the upgrade batting average may not be great. As others have mentioned, it depends on a number of variables.

I tend to think of silver to gold as the big jump, as the 100% mileage bonus looms large in being able to get a lot of miles in return for leisure trips. NW's 50% on silver, though, is more generous than others like UA.

Make Gold, or nothing... companion upgrades, 100% milage bonuses, security lines, etc. And a lot of threads include the comment "the GA/TA/FA saw I was a Plat, and went out of their way to take care of me", so going for Plat isn't that bad either.

Steve B.

I agree on all counts. I booked my first 9 segments (about 15,000 miles total) as a SE in preferred/exit-row seats, with the last 5 of those in rows 14 (753) or less (319/320)... but between EUA and actually asking for some upgrades, I've actually done 1 of the first 6 in coach, and expect to spend about 200 of the remaining 5,000 miles in coach. That is a big jump from Basic.

Faster RDM accumulation is, indeed, one of the big things I'm looking forward to as I get beyond Silver. If I can get all the rest of the year's travel on NW, I'll make Platinum. :)

I'll tell you the value of elite from a personal experience. Returned from LAS four weeks ago connecting in DTW to LAN. Scheduled connect time was 40 minutes. Needless to say Murphy stuck his nose into it when the plane in front of us on the taxi way had a medical emergency. End result, we're at the gate in DTW with 7 minutes to my connect -at the opposite end of DTW! Bolting off the plane from up front, I yelled at the gate agent to call the LAN gate, he replied. "they know". Got to the gate 3 minutes past scheduled departure with the ramp already retracted. gate agent said no worrys and re hooked the gate to the plane. As I am offering my profuse out breath thanks a ground crew member comes on the ramp and says "golf clubs?". I say yes (my only checked bag). He says "We got 'em". Keep in mind only 10 minutes have elapsed since my LAS flight landed. All I can say is that in all my years of flying on NW I have NEVER had such customer service. I'd like to think this level of care would be offered to all passengers but I know it was because of my elite status.

Plat rules, but Gold is a very nice step up. As a Gold, you receive upgrades on award tickets and you begin to receive some preferential treatment, esp. from FA's & from KL ground staff in Europe. Access to the GE/PE elite line is a real bonus.

The big advantage of Plat is the companion upgrades for my wife, even on award tickets, plus my standbys & upgrades always seem to succeed (note that I rarely travel the heavy elite routes like MSP/DTW-LAX/SFO/PDX/SEA).

Plat on NW vs. Gold on NW & Silver on Brand X? If you have to do a lot of travelling on Branch X (esp. a lot of short trips), I'd look at that carefully. Elite status generally brings other benefits such as standby priority whose value might not be appreciated until you need it! If brand X is a Skyteam partner, stick w/ NW & take a close look at the Skyteam benefits.

Another huge Plat advantage is the ability to book trips with miles and cancel or change them without any fee. Miles can be redeposited into your account at no cost. This allows you to book flights way out, when seat availability is the best, and if your plans change, you can cancel the itinerary altogether, or modify the trip as needed. Both Silver and Gold have to pay to redeposit miles.

This makes it easier to actually use all those miles you will accumulate with the 125% Plat Elite bonus.

Yeah, big perk on flying a lot is the miles. And I think flexibility in changing itineraries, being able to find cheaper award tix, etc is really valuable. Oh well, guess I gotta fly some more MR's.

For me, the flexibility and no admin fees. In March, when my wife and the kids were not Plat yet, I booked awark tickets for all of us to Delhi. I used my account, as I have been for the last few years, unless I was sure of the dates. This time, I was not getting the dates I wanted, nor was I able to get WBC/BF for all of us. I found 3 in BF so I took them thinking I could sit in coach. By mid April they all became PE. I am not sure if I will be able to keep their PLAT status, so I wanted to use their miles while they were still Plat. I called NW to have new tickets issued from each traveler's account. I made sure the same dates were still available. The first agent was surly and said flatly, it can't be done, once the tickets are issued. I reminded her what I w as doing was cancelling the tickets and having new ones issued. The next obstacle was, "But you can't get the same inventory". I was cancelling only 3 and there were about 8 available at that time before cancelling ours. Granted, there is always a chance that all eight seats disappear while she was resisting doing anything. So I asked her can you build a new reservation before cancelling the existing ones. "Nope". I know, in the past eleite agnets have done that for me, sometimes working with multiple alternate bookings all at once while we figure out what's best. SO, I thanked her and hung up.

Called again, and got a very nice agent. She sugggested herself that she would build new resevations before giving up the ones we had. Then I had to change the outbound dates to more suitable dates. After waiting for weeks, I decided to go with optimal dates even though there was no WBC/BF for those dates. I had a feeling that BF might become available as the dates of travel get nearer. Sure enough, on Saturday, we found 4 BF leaving this Friday. I really wanted 22nd but took 16th, as my wife thought she might be able to get ready for the trip by the 16th. Then, late last night 22nd opend up with 4 or more BF seats only one day beofre I wanted go. I grabbed them. Three changes in all for 4 tickets. The Admin and reposit fees would have added to a handsome amount had we all not been Platinums.

This, for me, is the biggest plus of being an elite. Domestic First is hardly something to write home about.

I was also recently upgraded to SE, but my file says only until Feb 2007... is that right? Shouldn't I get all of 2007?

Also, what are the chances of getting upgraded on a KLM flight within Europe?
Thanks!

And does anyone know why I can't choose a "p" seat on my next flight?

The miles you earn this year will qualify you for the year from March 1, 2007 to feb 28 2008. But in the mean time, NW is giving you a silver status effective from the date you have enough miles credited for SE.

If your reservation was ticketed before you became silver, your record does not indicate your status. You need to reenter your world perks number in your PNR so that it recognises your new status.

Thanks!

You may also find it necessary to call an agent and have them input your new number manually - I learned that firsthand. The system doesn't always accept an online re-entry of your WP number.

As I read postings about elite inflation, I suppose I can count myself lucky because I have continued to graduate up over the past fourteen years from preferred to silver to gold for many years and recently platinum. I also know that one's memory often represses bad experiences-- thus I can only remember a handful of times over the past ten years when I have not made an upgrades on domestic flight segments based on my NW status. In any case, I faced the quandry this year of whether to requalify for Plat with NW and drop back to Premier with UA, while I have maintained Gold NW and Premier Exec UA for the last number of years. In my case, I dropped back to premier on UA to maintain Plat on NW. Next year I will likely drop to base UA after many years because I simply now fly NW more than ever with the Plat benefits. UA's international biz fares were considerably more expensive than the Z biz fares I could capture when planning ahead with NW/KL or even flying AF. So I have been happy flying international with confirmed biz seats this year on NW/KL/AF than sweating over upgrades UA. I am still happier flying on NW Plat upgrades domestically than in E+ on UA. By the way, Elite inflation does not appear to be solely a situation at UA. Last year, every flight as a UA Premier Exec that I tried to use UA E upgrades (the one earns for every 10K flown) had no availability and my upgrades were eventually converted into ridiculously low 500 mile bonuses on my UA account as compensation. The only domestic flights last year I managed to fly F on UA as a premier exec were ones where I purchased a discounted first ticket. In that sense, my experience has been much luckier on NW.