Even as a NW Silver, the upgrades are relatively plentiful on everything but packed flights. And yes, for me at least, they are one of the biggest reasons I'm a WP member - I haven't yet booked any award travel.

It's for good reason I have an interest in the upgrades, as my company (and I know many others are in the same boat here) absolutely prohibits us from purchasing anything other than economy tickets. And going through corporate travel we have no real way to pick what fare class we're in, so I often am in discounted economy. So in the interest of getting the most comfort out of domestic flights, WP has been great to me.

Yup. I personally won't pay for F tickets, and am not allowed to fly F for work. So my business would be going elsewhere (or I'd be flying coach with the program that works best for me, which, again is mandated to be the one offering the lowest price ticket).

For me, FC upgrades are the #1 reason why I fly NW, but not the only reason. In decreasing order of importance, I fly NW because:
1. High FC upgrade percentage
2. Best hubs (I avoid ORD and ATL when possible)
3. Use of mainline jets in smaller markets (this is changing as the DC9s go out, but larger RJs have FC so little is lost)
4. Generous 125% mileage bonus
5. Decent award availability
6. International op-ups

I would argue you are in a very small minority to pay $600 more for domestic first. I wouldn't pay $600 more for a DTW-LAX flight (though I would pay say, double the cost of the cheapest coach ticket for F, and double Y for P if I need flex).

On the other hand, I am willing to pay thousands more for WBC. Even if they offered WBC on flights to LAX, I still wouldn't pay more than say, $800 more. So therin lies the problem with domestic first class- most people won't pay for it, in part because it doesn't offer anything, but also in part because the flights (except true transcon) are not that long.

It appears that I might be the only one to buy WBC or First seats. Bizperks is the primary reason for me as I can leverage WBC purchase ticket cost into guaranteed domestic upgrades.

After Bizperk value, tax deduction and earned miles we virtually fly personelly for free. The reason this works is because NW makes mileage and bizperks upgrades available in abundance and makes them easy to find on their website.

If bizperks or the ease of finding domestic mileage upgrades goes by the wayside in the merger I will still likely fly Delta if they have the best routes for my travel plans but I will not look at them first as I do now on NWA/KLM.

As a silver, I don't rely on free domestic upgrades. I prefer a "bird in the hand".

Short

By far the biggest reason I've remained a loyal NW customer over the years has been first class upgrades. I used to value other things, however as almost all the FF programs have been devalued, the one outstanding thing about NW is free domestic FC for ANY fare class.

edit...just read my post...I should have said free domestic FC upgrades....LOL. Just goes to show you I much I count on it....it's so rare to not get an upgrade as a PE.....I might fly coach domestic once a year.


Tracy

And even that one time you get a 1000 mile kicker for the trouble!

Why would you call the AF intra-Europe C product "pathetic"?
2-2 (most likely with wider seats) and 34" (isn't that the pitch in US domestic "first"?) on the 320, plus I am sure you got some half-decent snack, most likely with cutlery and crockery on a tray and not some dodgy "snack basket" with crisps.
Nothing to get excited about, but not bad for a sector lasting 90 minutes or so.
Would I pay for it? Not unless I was a non-elite (i.e. would need to buy C tkt for lounge access) on a complicated connection (e.g. 3 segments= 3 times the food!). When talking about intra-Europe product, please bear in mind that most flights are quite short. I don't think AF have a European flight longer than 4 hours, and the vast majority of their short-haul sectors are under 2.5 hours. No point in designing a truly great C product if the flight is not long enough for pax to appreciate it. Few people pay for these tickets; most intra-Europe C pax connect from/to a longhaul segment. If you fly business class on OK or MA (no longhaul network to speak of) outside of the routes to/from the intercontinental hubs (e.g. Paris, London), you will often be the only passenger in front of the curtain, no matter how many steaks and Drambuies they may offer in C. OTOH, KLM, who arguably offer the worst intra-Europe C product (3-3 seating and often cardboard boxes instead of trays), seem to have no issue packing their front cabins to the gills!
However, my understanding is that you can have a domestic US flight lasting about 7 hours, which is near enough longhaul in my book!

Do the AF seats actually become wider (by shrinking the middle seat?) I just thought the middle seat was folded down for more elbow space. At any rate. 34" pitch is still limited. A sample of U.S. ST airline's narrowbody FC has pitch at 35-39" (according to Seatguru.com).

Much longer. Try CO15 EWR-HNL. 10:35 block time.

It really is all about the upgrades for me. I've been willing to pay a bit more on so many flights due to them.

Last year I did have a couple TATL and TPAC biz seats which rocked...but I'm still a cheap midwesterner and won't pay cash for the seat. In fact I fly US-Asia quite often so I fly KE (miles to WP) which has a decent back of the plane product (yeah, I mean the AVOD and free drinks) and a better schedule getting into ICN.

Of course now I want to burn the obscene number of miles I have banked and can't find the biz seats I want! On the upgrade waitlist for MSP-AMS 5/2...crossing my fingers!

If the upgrades go I go.

Uh yep - upgrades it is!

I haven't been on AF C recently so can't remember their exact layout (plus for some reason I think last time I flew AF C may have been on a 737, so that's a fair while ago!! ), but on OK the middle seat is certainly shrunk to make the other 2 wider.

KLM and AirFrance have 3-3 seating in FC within Europe -- the same seats as in coach (<18" seat width). You get about 2 inches more of legroom (33" pitch) but that's it. The only thing really different about their BC product is you get a newspaper and an enhanced meal. The service and food are good, but the seat is a joke.

On an A320 in FC, the seat pitch is 36" and seats are at least 21" wide.

I was on 2 AF 320-family flights early last year and don't remember the seats as the stretchy configuration you find on BA and others. At any rate, I would not hesitate to state the hypothesis that the average european business traveller has much less girth than the average U.S. one.

Actually the KLM Europe Select cabin is still configured 3-3 I believe. Certainly not 2-2 anyways. The only difference with coach is a hot meal rather than a sandwich. I don't have a problem with the adjective "pathetic". I've never done the AF version.

To answer the question of the OP: what I value most is exit row seating, particularly on TATL flights. Even when I'm not upgraded, I can get a good seat.

Edited to add: I have to say I also find MSP to a very pleasant airport.