Ah, but you could be the Guinea Pig for 2 things: 1. How easy are they to use? and 2. How easy are they to cancel? I was a little freaked the first time I saw the BBQ'ed Guinea Pig myself....yum.

I redeemed my Level 4 award for the 2 SWUs on 7/10 and received the e-mail on 7/13 with my cert numbers. They had an expiration date of 11/12/08. I have already redeemed them for a trip to Berlin in Aug/Sept which is why I selected so early. Redemption was very smooth. I had a non-full fare "B" fare there and a "Q" fare return. Neither was upgradeable with mile at the time due to availablitiy although theoretically the B fare could have been upgraded for 30k mi.

There you have it. You can use the SWU's to upgrade cheap-o coach fares. Sounds like YoungBru had no problem using an SWU on the "Q" return portion of his Berlin trip.

Regarding #2 - the T&C's are pretty clear.
"
Changes/Refunds - Any refund or cancellation will result in the loss of the upgrade certificate. Voluntary itinerary changes are permitted per rules of the fare purchased, but upgrade is not guaranteed and will depend on availability and these Terms & Conditions. All reissues must be completed by NWA Reservations or MLT. If you are re-accommodated on another carrier, you will be seated in Coach Class."
If you cancel or refund your ticket, the SWU goes away with it and you don't get it back. However, NW will try to accommodate you in "C" if you change your ticket. What's not clear is what happens if you change your ticket and you are unable to use the SWU on the new ticket. To me it sounds like you have lost that SWU and you are S.O.L.

-RM

thanks for the replies! I realized that with my 107K + 2,500 EQM from the 60K level I'm even closer to the SWU's if I go for 120k.

I value the SWUs at about $500-$800 each, although that depends on what type of routing you're trying to redeem them on. For some routes, they could save you $2000-$4000 over the cheapest coach ticket, each way.

Must use by dates and US vs Asia terms of SWUs
 

I noticed a few interesting things about the expiration dates of the top level (160k) options, as well as some subtle differences in the terms&conditions for the SWUs for Asia vs. US residents.

Expiration Dates:
The 50% off perkpass WBC award is worth 120K miles, it would be a great value, except one thing... all travel must be completed by May 31, 2008 What??? That's terrible, most of the other awards, including the SWUs are valid for up to one year after selection (and you can make your selection up until Feb 29, 2008). So the SWUs are good until Feb 28, 2009 if you wait to make your selection.

US vs. Asia Terms for SWUs:
The two main differences have to do with the Transferability and Routing provisions. I think the difference in the Transferability is just a mistake, but maybe not... the Asia one suggests if you get the Cert issued without a name on it that it might be transferable (but I seem to think this is just a poor translation or wording). The routing rules kinda stink for Asia residents, limiting this to effectively a Asia-US and return upgrade via the Pacific on NW metal only. The US routing rules allow Europe, Mid-east, India and Africa routings (as well as Asia) including on KL metal. The highest value I can seem to find is SEA-JNB, where the lowest fare is $2k less than the regularly upgradeable fares. The Asia-US values arent really that good as there are plenty of $2k-ish Y fares out of Asia and the cheapos are really only at most $1k less. I would say that between the lower fare class and the fact that these so easily book into C (as opposed to Z or U), 4 of these used SEA-JNB are "worth" thousands of dollars, perhaps saving you $14k (yes I said $14000), which is the fare difference between 2 RT C tix and 2 RT V tix. Bottom line- I'm probably saving these until we move back to the US for a trip to Africa...

Here are the terms in case anyone is interested:
Transferability - Routing -

Can you use the 2500 EQMs from the first level at 60K to push yourself into the second level qualification at 90K? So if you have 88K EQM, and use the 2500 EQM award, would it give you 90.5K EQM, and hence, the second tier (90K EQM) award?

Yes.

I've received this award too. I'm holding off on my selection until I get closer to December. Earlier I was waiting to see if I'd need the 2500 miles to requal for plat. As it looks now, I'll be at about 100k. I'll probably get worldclub passes for my wife when she travels. :D

Do you know if that will work? The T&C's say that the passes are nontransferable. I was going to do the same thing. I already have a membership, so obviously the passes do me no good unless I can give them to my wife for her one trip without me next year. The EQM's do me no good, since I qualify on segments and will be nowhere close to the next level. (I really wish NWA would show a little more love to the segment qualifier like UA does.)

Bump

Does anybody know if it is possible for my wife to use the club pass if I choose that option?

My guess is that the passes have your NW FF# printed on the back. So she may or may not hae success using yours. A different story entirely, but I've been able to use non-transferrable US Air passes with someone else's name printed on them. I'm guessing hte ultimate answer is YMMV. Some lounge gatekeepers may care and some may not.

peace,
~Ben~

I have one in front of me and it should be no problem to give it to someone else to use. While it has my WP number on the card, nowhere does it say that it is not transferable and it actually has a place for another WP number to be written in by hand.

I used my first one a while back and they asked for no ID of any kind. Just took the card and said welcome (I was in NRT travelling on a UA ticket).

Great. Thanks. The other options are useless to me. This one looks to have some benefit.

Exactly the same for me. I let my WC membership lapse for a few months since I was mostly flying interational and used the coupons to tide me over on my domestic flights (and intl flights on UA:cool:).