When does "2 days prior" begin?
 

When the Elite guide says "After midnight 2 days prior to departure" for the Gold upgrade, what does it really mean? Suppose I want to fly on 8/3. Does the upgrade become effective when the midnight bell strikes on 8/1 (in reality, the night of 7/31)? I didn't think about this until today, when I realized that I would have to call NW to get an upgrade on my CO flight. I got spoiled by the automatic upgrade on NW and forgot how to do this "manually."

yup. you can call at 12:01am. i missed out on a couple of upgrades on co because i waited until 48 hours ahead.

Funny that you should ask that question. I just called today and asked that question to America West staff (I am gold on Am West).

Their rep stated that my Friday 2:30PM flight had been automatically upgraded as of 12:01AM Wednesday morning. Hence, two days prior meant that Friday did not count, and the upgrade posted right after the clock struck midnight Tuesday/Wednesday AM.

Presumably the "two days prior" definition is the same across the board.

P.S. I only rarely fly NW, but, their coach section seems pretty decent.

Two days prior means 2 calendar days.

So if your flight is on friday, then you can upgrade on wednesday. It becomes wednesday, at midnight tuesday night/wednesday morning.

So at 12:00:01am wed you could upgrade a flight anytime on the following friday.

BTW: The time zone of the departure city is used.

Butcher: it's not that friday doesnt count, but 2 days prior to friday is in fact wed.

I also put this into practice this morning, calling at 01:00 to upgrade a Sunday flight. I was told, however, that a B-26 wasn't a full enough fare, had to be Y. Called back this morning and got upgraded with no problem.

So now I wonder whether B fares qualify for the two-day rule, or did I get an agent that enjoys messing with half-asleep pax trying to get a jump on the deadline? Or did the new oboe on-hold music put me back to sleep and I just dreamed it happened??

The agent should have upgraded you, a b or y fare is a full fare

True, Boomer. Two days before Friday would be Wednesday.

Maybe I worded my post poorly. Prior to my calling Am West, I thought that the two days prior might have meant 48 hours from the flight time. E.g., 2PM Wednesday upgrade for my 2PM Friday flight. The phone rep indicated that they count from when the clock strikes Friday AM. Hence, my poor wording in saying that Friday did not count.

In thinking this over, 48 hours as opposed to two days prior to day of departure would not be feasible with hundreds of flights. That would seem to be a nightmare of different times, etc.

My post repeated, for some reason. The repeat data has been deleted.

[This message has been edited by Butcher Bird (edited 07-24-2000).]

Here's the straight skinny for NWA GOLD Elite members: 2 days prior means by midnight of the 3rd day prior to flight, meaning for a Wednesday flight the upgrade is done by midnite Sunday.

Now for the real deal. Since we live in different time zones, one would think that those in the eastern zone would get upgraded first, and those in the Pacific would be last. It doesn't work that way. It looks like all the Golds in my example above are "ranked" and the upgraded together. You can verify this by going to the NWA.COM view travel arrangements place on SUNDAY around 8pm & you'll see that it has already been done for you.

Bird:

doing it 48 hrs before, as opposed to 2 days wouldn't be a nightmare at all, since the upgrades are done via computer, it would be very easy to program.

Continental did in fact use 48 hrs and 72 days, rather than 2 and 3 calendar days, several years ago. It worked just fine.

Since I am a night-owl I prefer the midnight rule, since I'm usually awake anyway.

Concur that it is usually done automaticaly, I have traveled on deep discount and full fare tickets and when I call for my gold upgrade I have been told everytime it has already been done...maybe I'm lucky http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by beetee (edited 07-22-2000).]

I don't know if I agree with that, Boomer. In fact, I completely disagree with your statement. It is not the aspect of having the computer make the upgrade that would be bothersome. Obviously, that can be done in a split second.

It is the specter of having hundreds of thousands of people calling in at all hours of the day, questioning when the upgrade become effective. Having everything switchover at a specific time simplifies issues related to that.

I received one of my favorite FlyerTalk tips ever from this board a year ago about upgrading with NWA. When using a NW upgrade available "the day of travel," I used to wait until one minute past midnight to call. This was a pain especially if I then had to get up at 4 a.m. to get to the airport for an early flight. I used to go to sleep and set my alarm for midnight to make the call. Then, I learned here that I can actually call at 10:00 p.m. because I live on the West Coast and it is already midnight in NWA country. I can then get a couple more hours of sleep if I want. I have done this successfully several times--the latest a couple of weeks ago for a long SEA-DTW-PVD flight. Ahhhhh, you gotta love this place. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by TravelWeary (edited 07-23-2000).]