I have been waitlisted more than 20 times in the past one year since I hit Platinum Elite. All the tickets I had were either Q, M or B for intra-Asia or transpacific flights.

I get an impression that NW does not give top waitlist priority -- PA -- even if you are a Platinum. It's always been PB at best. I think they may have a fare basis-based policy for determining priority.

Do you guys agree?

This is a marked difference with UA 1K, which may require a lot more flight miles to qualify. UA 1K usually gets PA almost regardless of fare class.

The different between NW Plat and Gold seems to be very, very narrow, while there appears to be a tremendous gap between 1K and 1P for UA and between Ex. Plat. and Plat for AA.

I wonder what it is like with CO Plat and CO Gold, too.

Chiangi -

I don't know how NW works, but are you trying to W/L through your travel agent?

I'm 1K, and my agent frequently doesn't get the PA to stick, and has to get UA to do it for her.

Could it be that the equivalent is true w/ NW, that you have to ask NW to put the upgraded priority in for you directly?

Just guessing,
Greg

[This message has been edited by greg99 (edited 07-13-2000).]

Woo hoo!

I finally made evangelist!!!

Congratulations! greg99

My experiences tell me that I will hardly get PA, or maybe never, even if I talk to NW agents over and over again.

But with UA, even when I was 1P, after persitant calls for higher priority, I sometimes got PA. It usually starts out from PB.

I hit 1K just about a month ago and had about five w/l reseravations. I called UA in TYO and they all re-entered my record and said all of them have been upgraded to PA. Within a day or two, I even got seats including those for two NC reservations.

This is a tremendous difference from NW ....

I am glad I hit 1K, though. I have flown only 25,000 miles so far with NW and don't feel like flying much more ... My priority now rests with AA.

I still have things to learn! What is PA and PB?

Paul -

For travel agents who use the Apollo computer reservation system ("CRS") (it could apply to others, but I only know about Apollo) when they attempt to sell a flight that has 0 availability in a given class, but the waitlist is open (whole different topic re: when the WL is open), the computer will show the status of the flight reservation on the PNR (Passenger Name Record - as I recall it means - used to refer to the individual paper card that reservations were stored on in the days before computers, but I digress).

If that waitlisted flight is on United, Apollo will come back and show it as status PB. This indicates the priority of that PNR on the waitlist. If you have certain FF status w/ UA, they will upgrade that status on the waitlist to PA, and presumably you will clear (if anyone will clear) the inventory management's computer before people trying to get that fare class with priority PB.

I don't know how this works with people booking UA using other systems, such as SABRE. I'm sure others can advise, as well as correct/expand my explanation here.

Greg

[This message has been edited by greg99 (edited 07-13-2000).]

Chiangi,

Was that a waitlist for coach or for business upgrade?

I am Platinum Elite too and I think the best benefits / recognition begain once you start US domestic... not in Asia... the operational upgrades chances are so miniscule...

When I do have Y ticket, I never have problems in getting a seat ..... However, the Q tickets from Singapore usually do not allow for waitlist .... My waitlist for M class from Tokyo to Honolulu just cleared so basically for a coach seat, my waitlist percentage is about 100 percent ....

Just go to the airport and wait ... they will give you a seat ....

BTW, what are your operational upgrade success rate?

What are your upgrading with miles success rates?

I have got many lies from the NWA staff at Changi .... " Business is full, I am sorry" and then I walk into a half empty C cabin

After NW merged with CO, as a NW Plat, my success ratio on operational upgrades (free due to oversold Y) took a nosedive. This year, however, flying on K or V, my wife and I have been upgraded to C more often (50% success rate) than ever. This has more to do with NW's current high pax load than anything else.
Recent Asian travel to HKG yielded nothing, PVG was 100% in C, SIN was 50%.

By definition, an operational upgrade occurs ONLY when coach is oversold. Otherwise you must use miles to upgrade on applicable fares.

BTW, our domestic success rate remains 100%.

Greg,

I have access to JL's booking system, Axess, which largely relies on SABRE, because I want to pick a certain fare class to book a flight. With Axess I can. ITN is useless for a person like me who doesn't have a U.S. address for credit cards.

If you make a booking for a UA flight via Axess, you get two PNRs, one for Axess and the other for Apollo. That's the only difference, I think. PA and PB doesn't show on the Axess screen -- only HL (for waitlist).

If you want to upgrade with miles, then UA will usually take over the entire reservation and make it inaccessible from Axess, which looks quiet messy on the Axess screen, though.

Dr. Miles,
My tickets are usually economy. Very occasionally I fly business for SEL-NRT-SIN or BKK or HKG.

NW has published discounts for C and Y on these routes. They are cheaper than NRT-SIN or NRT-BKK or NRT-HKG and all allow stopover at NRT.

Last year, NW used to give Platinum mebers a seat guarantee for these C tickets if you book 48 hours before or something, even if no seats were available. But this year, they changed the rule to give this guarantee to only J-class ticket holders. J are for transpacific business class that may cover intra-Asian routes.

I've never done Q-class waitlisting from SIN but I could try myself as I can make a booking record myself but if NW in SIN intervenes, they may just cancel it, though. I have made Q class waitlist reservations from BKK and TYO.

I had operational upgrades occasionally in intra-Asia flights, maybe 4 out of 30 flights in two years. Three were from C to F (not much difference, except the seat) and one was from Y to C.

When upgrading with miles, I usually look for a route with C inventory availability and make a booking, so I rarely had a problem in this area.


[This message has been edited by Chiangi (edited 07-13-2000).]

No such waitlist as PA with nw. The highest
is PB.

With all due respct, I have been told by NW reseravation agents that they do have the PA waitlist priority category. Or have I been just mistaken?

If yes, then I apologize for misleading readers here.

I know NH does not assign PA even for its top-tier elites and PB is the highest they can assign. PA is a category for ''VIPs,'' NH normally says.

And thus the lingo, "you are on the Priority waitlist"-

Unfortunately, so is everyone else!

The only way to get on NW PB list is to list it directly with NW, or go through a worldspan travel agent

Not sure if it has to be via a WorldSpan agent.

I use JL's CRS, available for the public for a fee. It is partially owned by Sabre. When NW knows that I am a Platinum elite, which I can send as an FQTV SSR message, and I send several 'please do all possible' message ... Voila PB.