NWA.Com Confusion
 

I am looking at booking a trip MCO to HEL via DTW (these are the flights that are available on my company travel website) early Oct and want to use a PU-503 to upgrade . I understand that I can search for "U" availability by selecting the Mileage Upgrade option. Since the DTW-AMS is the important flight to upgrade I put that in by itself for the search. I was offered upgradeable connections through Chicago, London, Washington etc but not the direct DTW-AMS flight. When I selected non-stop only, it told me no flights were available that matched my request. I just assumed no "U" availability. Just for kicks I put HEL as the destination vs. AMS and now the search shows every DTW-AMS flight on the days I want to travel have "U"availability. Any ideas why the direct DTW-AMS flights won't show this availability on the web site flight search? I guess I should probably call and verify "U" availability before I actually book one of these.

Remember, none of this matters if you aren't booking the ticket in the right fare class to begin with. Must be in M, B or Y to be eligible for the upgrade.

Understand that.

Do a search for "married segments" or "favored availability" and you will find your answer.

NW will sell the seat from DTW to HEL but not just to AMS. And if you find DTW-AMS-HEL availability then try to add MCO-DTW you might also be unpleasantly surprised. You might need to search for the entire routing or just call.

Agreed that married segments can have different availability from the single segments but it is a good start to find open space separately, especially the TATL segment. But for something so 'complicated' you'll need to call nowadays. That used to be different but let's revisit that. Until Oct. 24 you may also try Continental.com which has a great search engine and try your luck there.