For the first time in a long time now (6-9 months?) I ended up back in row 14 on my ORD-DTW hop yesterday. I was kinda disappointed, but heck, I've had a pretty good string so far.

(Though I did notice what appeared to be an in-transit FA moving up to an empty seat in first after the door was shut...I'd been told at the gate that I was like 13th on the wait list and it was a long shot, so I got on the plane first to make sure my bag had a home in the overhead. I'm not upset about it, but found it curious.)

Oddly, on what was otherwise a full flight, the seat next to me was empty, which made the flight quite passable.

I realize it was probably just random chance.... but was it? I wonder if the NW reservation system has some logic in it that tries to keep the seat next to golds/plats open til the last possible moment?

I am not sure if NW does that. On our trip to BKK, I asked an elite NW agent if we could get window and an isle in two rows and hope for the middle seatto remain vacant. The first agent rudely turned me down, making me feel guilty for even asking. I thanked her for what seats she had assigned us and called again. The next agent put me on hold and came back with an answer in the affirmative. She did say, however that a vacant seat in the middle is not guranteed, which is reasonable. But we did have a vacant seat in the middle on DTW-NRT and NRT-MSP legs. NRT-BKK-NRT were too full.

I would hope it is not a policy, however I have had similar situations occur with regard to upgrades. I have been at the top only to get on, and when the door close, see what appear to be non-rev moving from jump seats or other not so desierable locations up to the empty seats up front. I suppose I could complain, however I have a good string of upgrades in place and better things to complain about. Now if it becomes more common, then that's another story.

NW has been known to block seats next to Elites (or maybe just Platinum?) but those seats are game for all travelers on the day of departure (including NWA.com check-in).

[This message has been edited by IndustrialPatent (edited 02-13-2003).]

Last Friday I was on a DCA-DTW flight that was almost sold out. The GA would not put my wife on the upgrade list (and also denied others) because he said that he had only 2 seats not checked in and plenty of people on the list.

As it turned out this less than brilliant GA waited so long to process the upgrades from the list that he had to give the names to the FAs to upgrade. They took their sweet time and notified only after pushback.

Because of the 30 minute rule, they could not move and neither bothered for the last 30 minutes of the flight. Two F seats went empty. I commented to the FA that it was a shame that the GA did not properly do his job. She agreed.

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Randy
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HH Gold; WN CP; NW Gold Elite