Hello FlyerTalkers.

I have been off-line for a while! Hope to be responding to many
of these posts within a day or so. Sorry to have been away so long.

Hi MJW. Glad to hear from you and hope you are well. The change prohibiting upgrades using miles with cheaper fare classes, particularly with little, if any, advance notice has definitely aroused the ire of FT's!!!

The above announcement is buried at the frequent flyer center page, and the only way you will know what it says is to read the "Northwest Feature" stating "Effective October 8, 1999 WorldPerks Award upgrades to World Business Class are no longer available from transAtlantic Coach fares beginning with the letter V, Q, H or M."

As a Gold Elite, I recently enjoyed a $300+ RT fare ORD/LGW, receiving around 20M miles, while using 40M for the WBC upgrade. I'm sure this was not such a good deal for NWA, but it was a good deal for me. Fortunately for me, there are numerous other airlines which will START me as of 1/1/2000 as an elite member (free upgrades, 2X miles, etc) based upon proof of 3+ years similar status at NWA.

Obviously, the "suits" decided to STOP THE CHEAPIE LGW UPGRADES IMMEDIATELY, and TO YOUKNOWHERE WITH CUSTOMER GOODWILL!

Continental recently went from "worst to first" but it looks like NWA wants to assume CO's prior status.

Now on Oct 8, 1999 I notice that the announcement has been changed to include a "reason", which is "specious", or in plain English just "BS". Next, I'm going to go to NWA.com & see if the low fares have "mysteriously Disappeared" only to reappear on October 12, 1999. Not a lot of trust & confidence here, NWA.

[This message has been edited by knowitall (edited 10-08-1999).]

MJW- Any response to my posting? Or, did the "suits" tell you to ignore the issue & it will just go away? It won't.

Knowitall: MJW IS "one of the suits" though she may not have been pushing that change, she certainly has known about it (and surely feared looking at flyertalk opinions about it), but I am sure we will in time get more of an answer from her and hopefully this will not be a permanent change (hint, dump it - excuse-demand has returned to "normal").

Having said that, I am sure MJW wasn't gone long enough or relaxing enough to be ready to deal with all these threads super quickly, and I am sure that the decision for this change is causing some headaches now, as it should (IMHO).

I might add that CO does have fare restrictions on its Int'l upgrades, similar to what NW has just imposed... of course one would have hoped they would have aligned the programs with NW's old approach not CO's.

And finally, welcome back MJW, I hope nothing serious caused your absence.

TG

just when i started to get excited about the program they pull the rug out from under me. i use them primarily for trips to europe, so i thought i might have an alternative to aa, which i think is the only other airline that allows for upgrades on lower priced int'l fares. i guess that gold elite memebership i'm pursuing just lost alot of its lustre.

knowitall: I don't know if it is her policy or not, but it may be that you need to provide an e-mail address in the info screen for MJW to take you more seriously. I'm sure it would at least increase your credibility by decreasing your anonymity and would give her a way to address your concerns privately if she is not permitted to do so publicly...

Just a thought. I know that some guard their anonymity fiercely...

[This message has been edited by Matt Wald (edited 10-12-1999).]

MJW -DONDE ESTA USTED?