Hello.. I have a question concerning the E-first upgrade. What are the usual prices on E-first Upgrades between LAX and MSP? ^

Not sure, but unlikely you'd ever find availability on a LAX-MSP flight to have one offered at check-in.

Elite UGs would come first and even though it's a small sampling (below) it shows Elite UG success isn't even all that sure:

making my answer the same as Phil2016's. It might be possible for low elite travel periods, but otherwise not likely.

Before I was elite I was offered a $35 UG from DTW>DCA on a paid M-fare. Hopefully that will help you judge the price a little, my guess would be $100-200 range.

If this helps any... here are loads from www.seatcounter.com for the flight i will be on:

2 Northwest 308 757-200 LAX/04:05p MSP/09:36p B9 F9 H9 K0 L9 M9 P9 Q9 T5 V9 Y9


This is on January 8th fyi...

All I can say - regarding the fare buckets posted above - is alot can happen between now and January. Beside ticket purchases, elites will be UG'ed into the (hidden) R bucket, which is a subset of F, which is a subset of P. You're likely to see those FC seats decline significant'y at 6, 4 and 2 days out as the Plat, Gold and Silver EUA windows pass.

On the other hand, 1/8/2008 is a Tuesday so you're much better off than on a Sunday-Monday or Thursday-Friday, which are the traditional FF/elite-heavy travel days. YMMV, of course, depending upon convention traffic, etc.

OP isn't asking "if" an e-first upgrade is going to happen, op's asking the price....

You never know, fare paid also plays into it. I think it has to be an M-fare or higher, Perhaps a H/Q. I don't think a V/L/T/K will even be offered.

I will be flying back to the US on Korean Air in Business Class in a full fare C class. I am wondering whether to use my Korean Air Skypass miles to acrue the miles or my NWA Worldperks.. What is up with the EQM etc... my itin. is taipei-Seoul-Los Angeles.... in C Class.. How many miles could I earn out of this on NWA WP?

Go for it. C/J gets you 125% EQM and RDM's.

Korean Air



Earning/Redeeming Miles
Earn miles on SkyTeam-coded, Korean-operated flights.
Redeem miles on all Korean-operated flights (excluding KE 6000-6706 and 6711-6999).

Effective January 1, 2006, WP members may no longer redeem miles for First class travel on Korean Air.

Destinations
Korean Air serves 84 cities in 29 countries worldwide.

Website: www.koreanair.com

Earning Banked Miles
100% of actual miles flown (500-mile minimum)
50% mileage bonus for First Class travel.
25% mileage bonus for Business Class travel.
Miles not earned in the following classes: G, B, Q, N, A, D, U

Elite Qualifying Korean Air Fare Classes on Korean-coded, Korean-operated
Elite Qualifying Miles at 150%: P, F, Y, M
Elite Qualifying Miles at 125%: J, C
Elite Qualifying Miles at 100%: K, T, H, Z, L, O, S, W, E, R, X, V
Elite Qualifying Segments: P, F, Y, M, X, J, C, K, T, H, Z, L, O, V, S, W, E, R

Award Blackout Dates on Korean Air Flights

At the beginning of the summer, I got one MSP-SFO for $105. (That was before Silver-Gold-Plat in four months)

The first two of us said we didn't know the how much, but it might not matter since it's a hard elite UG usually. I was hoping someone who actually had some idea of the $ would post later. That said, with about six weeks to the flight and more than forty of the P seats taken already, I doubt there will be any seats for a paid UG since there are only 22 seats in F and there will probably be a lot of elites added to the flight who don't know they'll be on it yet.

What status if any, how many EQMs and how many total miles do you have in each?

right now with nwa current balance of miles 5,056 and with korean air a balance of 5,500-ish miles and 0 banked for the year 2007 (used 15,000) to upgrade Seoul-Taipei) but a total banked for this year so far.. 20,500 miles....

Ok so.. if i used my KE skypass.... i think i would have similar statuses as per their website:

http://www.koreanair.com/local/cn/gd...g_sp_cb_mc.htm

and

http://www.koreanair.com/local/cn/gd...g_sp_em_ka.htm

but the question is which would i get a better deals with miles

on that second link it shows the air mileages between their cities.... so using that mileage chart...

with the total miles.... would it be better for me in the end to acrue the miles on my NW WP or on my Korean Skypass??

With NW WP, you'd be SkyTeam Elite/NW Silver Elite after 25,000 EQM in a qualifying year, which would last through the rest of that year as well as SE for the next year. If you reach 50,000 EQM in a qualifying year you'd be SkyTeam Elite/NW Gold Elite, which would last through the rest of that year as well as GE for the next year. If you reach 75,000 EQM in a qualifying year you'd be SkyTeam Elite +/NW Platinum Elite, which would last through the rest of that year as well as PE for the next year.

With KE you'd be SkyTeam Elite when you reach 50,000 EQM in a year (30,000 of which must be on KE - NW doesn't have that restriction) which would last for two years, and to retain that status you have to earn 30,000 EQM (20,000 of which must be on KE) in the next two years. You'd gain SkyTeam Elite + status after attaining a lifetime of 1,000,000 EQM, which it seems you retain for life.

As to which benefits from status and which rewards from RDM (redeemable miles - for awards) would be best for you, you'd have to delve into the benefits and rewards in each program.

The SkyTeam benefits of SkyTeam Elite and SkyTeam Elite + will be the same no matter which program you pick.