How do international upgrades work?
 

Say I was going on a trip to BKK from SFO how would I upgrade if at all possible? I'm Silver.

Essentially buy an expensive fare....and hope

Normally, you have to purchase a qualifying fare economy ticket, which means the really cheap fares don't qualify. You have to have a valid economy seat reservation, and then you need to find an "I" category WBC seat available to be upgraded into. US to Asia round trip economy to WBC upgrades cost 50,000 miles. See http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/direct/charts/zone10.shtml
Operational (i.e., free) upgrades are usually offered only when economy is overbooked and they can move people up to the WBC area, although I think they are usually selecte by WP status, so silver would be selected after the platinums and golds. Good luck. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Edited to correct spelling. Why is it you never see it until it posts?? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif


[This message has been edited by SeoulGold (edited 12-19-2002).]

How often have upgrades come through recently?

The qualifying fares to upgrade, with miles, are "B & M".

In general the rules are:

Y & B are upgradable to Europe
Y & B are upgradable to China (including HKG)
Y & B & M are upgradable to the rest of Asia

Not all B & M fares are upgradeable as I have discovered by personal experience I'm hoping that one of our NW employee's on this board will provide the real scoop on how to tell.

I am wondering about that too.
I am currently exploring options for a trip through AMS, and although there are "B" (BLXANE) fares available, I am not sure if they qualify for upgrades, as they are lower than some of the H fares posted.

I guess I should just call and find out. Yep I think I'll do that. Back in five. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

(Jeopardy theme music as I talk on the phone...)

Ok, the fare BLXANE is upgradeable. Also, the operator told me that all B fares are upgradeable (transatlantic.) But I have no status with NW, so I didn't get to speak with someone at an elite phone line...

[This message has been edited by notsosmart (edited 12-19-2002).]

I'm interested in some feedback.

I've been researching 'B' fares to HKG from PDX. The cheapest B fare prices out to about $1450 per person.

It seems like I would be much better off getting the cheapest 'M' fare to TPE and then buying a separate ticket from there to HKG. The cheapest M fare is $790. I figure I can get a cheap $200 ticket from TPE to HKG if I look hard enough.

The result is that I can fly in Business to TPE for $790, upgrade using miles and then only have 2 hours or less in coach for TPE<->HKG and spend only about $990 or so saving $600 per person and a bonus of a couple of days in TPE.

Any other suggestions for beating the high B fares to HKG?

So far the flaw seems to be in finding I availability to TPE. Every date I have looked at has shown 0-1 WBC seats available. And no upgrade seats.

The only time that a Y/B or M(Asia minus CN and HK) fare would not be upgradable is if there is a ticket desg. associated with it, that prohibits an upgrade.

I'll bite:

Which ticket designators are not upgradeable?
How do I find that information? Is it embedded in the fare rules? Only visible to a NW agent?
Other?

I upgrade internationally on NW using CO miles all of the time just by calling and planning ahead. I'm not much of a rule guy so I just call and say - I need to go from SEA-AMS around these and I need a fare / date that I can upgrade with CO miles. 90% of the time it works out just fine. If not I then look at standard WBC award 90K to asia for instance, and worse comes to worse RuleBuster (EasyPass) award. But usually I only have to be 2-3 days flexible to get the standard upgrade. So, why take the chance - just call.