Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on my situation. I used search and couldn't find any instance where the UG process for CO OP members flying NW had changed. I'm a CO Plat, booked my reservation on NW metal two months ago, and included my CO OP # in the reservation. 2 of my 4 flights are UG eligible (the other 2 are CRJs). I'm 2 days out and no UG. I was able to select good seats at booking (my OP number was recognized, and I was given access to the exit rows and "P" seats ) so I'm not overly concerned about the UG, it just seems odd. I contacted NWA to make sure my OP number was showing up on their end, and I got a very terse email that I was listed as CO Plat and the upgrade process was working as described.

Could there be that many NW Platinums from PIT-DTW on a 3PM Monday flight? I used to get UG >90% of the time on this flight as a NW silver. Just wondering if this may be a glitch in the system or if PIT has become elite heavy for NW in the last month or so... Again, it's 198 miles...I can survive in coach...I'm just baffled at the lack of UG.

Cheers!
Phil

Flight 970 PIT-DTW 15:15 shows P7 F7 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 L9 T9 K9. You should have an upgrade along the way unless there are lots of folks buying FC seats.

Thanks! Is NW holding more inventory until closer to departure? Usually, my UG clears at the window. I appreciate the info!

Cheers,
Phil

I'm on this flight quite a bit (when it's not an RJ, that is!), and it is fairly elite-heavy. As a NW Plat I can't remember sitting in the back, though. Hang in there, but as you say, it IS a very short flight. There's barely even time for a beverage service.

Not only is it an Elite-heavy flight, as suggested, but it also feeds many international departures from Detroit to Europe. NW tends to hold off giving away all of the FC seats to free upgrades, when there is the possibility of selling a Business Class ticket to Europe with the added benefit of a FC seat on the domestic connection. But in the end, any remaining FC seats will be doled out at the gate, or maybe the day before. BF upgrades are becoming more and more frequent on NW, even for Plats (like me) who had gotten used to having almost all or their upgrades confirm 5 days before departure.

I have 4 flights next week, and so far only 1 has been confirmed in FC. It happens to be the one that I thought would be the toughest to get: PDX-MSP on an A320 at 2 PM. Of the other 3 flights, only 1 of them is booked more than 50% full in coach! The other 2 flights are virtually empty both in front and in back. So go figure....it seems NW is starting to get VERY stingy with advance upgrades these days!! Maybe they are trying to show us how things are going to be once DL takes over?????

Thanks everyone! You've confirmed my suspicions that NW may be getting stingier with advance UG's. That's cool - I don't *need* to sit up front...just wanted to know if this was a fluke or the way things are these days.

Cheers!

Just checked the booking levels for NW970 for next Monday, Sept. 8.

Currently showing P7 F6 Y9 and all 9's for the rest of the buckets.

Currently booked at 9/16 in FC, but the good news is that they have added back 5 seats today in the R bucket, so 5 lucky travelers will be upgraded overnight when EUA runs.

Hopefully you are one of them!

I really appreciate your attention to this, mrcimino1 ! I just checked my reservation, and I'm still in coach. Perhaps when I check in I'll be offered the UG. If not, I guess there were 16 paid FC/NW Platinum/CO Platinum customers ahead of me...

It is possible...particularly on a Monday. I've been #35 on the waitlist as a platinum (flying DTW-MSN)...sometimes, there are just a lot of others.

Yesterday I was on a 757 MSP to LAX... 3/4 of my segs upgraded at the 5 day mark, but the one seg didn't... watched it all week and it was P9F9, so not so worried, but I had to go to the gate to get my UG... would have thunk that with those kinds of numbers they would have opened some seats the night before... then the flight went mech for 2.5 hrs, so my turn ended me with an overnight in MSP vs getting home last night.

Special thanks to the gracious FlyerTalker who met me for dinner last night and drove me to my hotel ^

Just an update...

I checked in at about the 23hr mark. Was offered the UG, and took it. There were probably 6 empty seats on the seating chart (FWIW ). I have another possibly dumb question...does that mean that my UG was dependent on my doing OLCI? If I had waited until the airport to check in tomorrow, would any golds and silvers have been offered the UG? I'm not sure that I've read about this permutation in the sticky (but it's possible I missed it!).

Anyway, that's the conclusion for the flight out. The return segment on Wednesday mid morning is still not showing UG, so I guess I'll wait till OLCI again.

I may actually get to finish my drink before we land...LOL

Thanks again to everyone for all the help, I appreciate it!

Cheers,
Phil

Possibly. Likely you were assigned a seat when the EUA ran at 24 hours and the system still prompted you for it. At the same time, it has been well documented that sometimes those checked in cannot snag a seat that was released within the OLCI window. So if you happen to catch a seat just before the EUA runs, congrats.

That's why many FT-ers will do OLCI at 2359, and cancel and repeat several times until they know it's a BF UG (likely if still on the WL at ~4 hrs to departrue)

Just a follow-up...

I'm flying back to PIT today, and didn't get the UG. FC is listed as booked full, and I'm 1 of 3 on the UG list. However, for my flights next week (PIT-DTW-PVD), I was upgraded 6 days out as a CO PLAT.

I give up trying to figure this out! Either I just sucked at picking flights into and out of DTW this week, or lots of elites were on my flights.

Thanks again for everyone's help on this issue. Happy flying!

How can you see online that you are "1 of 3" on the UG list?

It's a new feature on nwa.com. There's a recent thread on it hiding somewhere.