I have recently begun a job that requires me to fly often. I'm quite new to this whole frequent flyer thing, so any help is greatly appreciated. I have a reservation to Bangkok, Thailand in December and would like to upgrade to Business Class with miles. Besides calling NW regularly, is there a way I can check upgrade availability on my own? I believe my booked ticked is M class.

Thanks!

Welcome to FT!

Unfortunately, with an M class ticket, you won't be able to upgrade, with or without miles.

Wrong.

Welcome!

Looks like doglover is right on this one. It's a bit confusing reading the fine print, but here it is.

Upgrade options are valid on most published fare types (and on many Northwest Airlines WorldVacations unpublished fare types) except for the following: frequent flyer program free/discounted award travel, VUSA passes, Visit USA fare, Round-The-World, Circle-The-Pacific, infant/child, Asian origin spouse fare, companion fares, Asian consolidator ID tickets, Denied Boarding Compensation, free, no value, agency/industry discount tickets, chart flight tickets, senior discount tickets, student fares, Fly Later-Fly Free vouchers, CATY International, most unpublished fares, consolidator tickets issued on 01298 ticket stock, any certificates, coupon, Bonus Miles or promotional offer/ticket, trans-Atlantic fares beginning with S/K/V/Q/H//M and U.S. point of sale trans-Pacific fares beginning with H/K/V/Q and H/K/V/Q/M for flights between the U.S. and Hong Kong/China. Northwest will determine the eligibility of new fare types as they become available.

Yeah, I was informed by my travel agent who booked the ticket that the ticket IS able to be upgraded with miles. She specifically made sure to book it in M with that intent in mind.

Thanks for the feedback. Further info is appreciated!

Your statement that you are fairly new to "this frequent flyer thing" leads me to believe that you are not a NW elite member. This complicates matters because you may have difficulty in getting a regular agent to find you availability. One must call WorldPerks reservations in order to upgrade the "M" bucket and there is often not upgrade availability for a particular flight (especially into BKK). Just keep calling and trying.

In the future, if you have date flexibility, call WorldPerks first and offer them the dates you want and ask them for upgrade availability and upgrade at the same time that you purchase the ticket. Sometimes you have to fly somewhat convoluted routings to get upgraded.

For example next week, I am flying PDX-SEA-HNL-NRT-BKK on a miles upgraded "M" fare booked in July. The return is BKK-NRT-LAX-PDX. The only portions not upgraded are those on AS ie: PDX-SEA and LAX-PDX.

Thanks again for the info. I am a Silver Elite member (earned just last year), so hence some of my unfamiliarity with how this works (particularly from an Elite standpoint). Unfortunately, my plans are pretty tight on this trip. But I will certainly keep the routing thing in mind in the future. As for BKK this time around, I'll keep calling NW (I'm using the dedicated Silver Elite line) and hope something opens up.

Thank you!