SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 1399 times:
I used some miles to upgrade my upcoming flights later on this year, and I was looking at my account info on nwa.com today and realized that no miles have been taken out of my account. Now, I upgraded these flights about a week and a half ago. Do they not take out the miles until after you have flown? If that is so, you would be able to keep upgrading future flights even tho in theory you wouldnt actually have those miles in your accout, because you used them to upgrade yourself they have just yet to take them away, if you understand what I mean. Or are they supposed to withdrawl the miles right away when you are on the phone with their CSRs? Is it wrong to not call them and say anything if indeed it is a mistake and they did not take out the 15,000 miles each for the upgrades?
SandroZRH From Switzerland, joined Feb 2007, 3382 posts, RR: 51 Reply 3, posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 1384 times:
Quoting SiouxATC (Reply 2): It says on their website that the upgrades are confirmed
There shouldnt be a problem then. Print the confirmation as backup for your flight in case there's any complications at the gate or at checkin. You might be lucky and they had some sort of system glitch, meaning your upgrade was confirmed but no miles taken from your account. It happened to my dad once
Jano From Slovakia, joined Jan 2004, 814 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 1383 times:
Was the ticket reissued already? Most likely no since the miles were not deducted.
I'm in a somewhat similar situation myself. I had an award ticket on NW/KL/OK. I decided to change the routing a bit and upgrade to business class too for the outbound leg. It's been 4 days since the ticket was changed, but it has not been reissued yet since the miles were not substracted yet. And I'm about to call tonight to find out what's happening.
SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1332 times:
I talked to a lady on the phone, and just asked how many miles do I currently have and she said the same amount as I had before I upgraded my flights. So I dont know what to think. She also said that the miles should be taken out right away when you upgrade your flights.
Sounds like you just got lucky mate! I would go with the approach that you didnt even notice the balance of miles in your account if anyone does say anything, but after reading that above thread I would be happy just to actually get a seat in F on NW with a confirmed ticket. Seems like they are good at downgrading their FF's!
113312 From United States of America, joined Apr 2005, 537 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 1269 times:
Miles are only normally deducted for international legs. For domestic USA markets, upgrades are given to Elite status frequent flyers on the basis of time prior to flight or fare basis.
SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (5 years 10 months 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 1244 times:
Quoting 113312 (Reply 10): Miles are only normally deducted for international legs. For domestic USA markets, upgrades are given to Elite status frequent flyers on the basis of time prior to flight or fare basis.
But I am not yet elite for NW. I still dont get it.....
Georgebush From New Zealand, joined Jul 2006, 679 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (5 years 10 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 1201 times:
Do you have your seat assignments in F? Thats a for sure way to know they have cleared. On UA they dont clear till 24hrs prior to departure (for non-eilites), and thats when the miles come out when your actually checked-in to first class.
SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (5 years 10 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1185 times:
Quoting Georgebush (Reply 12): Do you have your seat assignments in F? Thats a for sure way to know they have cleared. On UA they dont clear till 24hrs prior to departure (for non-eilites), and thats when the miles come out when your actually checked-in to first class.
Well on NW you cannot get your seat assignments until 90 days prior to your departure. Up until that point it says "seats not assigned". Im not sure if NW is the same as UA but the CSRs that I have been speeking with all said that the miles are supposed to come out of your account right away..........
NWBOS From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 149 posts, RR: 2 Reply 14, posted (5 years 10 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1184 times:
Most likely your reservation has not been re-ticketed for the upgrade, and it is currently on queue to be manually processed by the rate desk. Look at your reservation. Are there two e-ticket numbers associated to it (the second one reflecting a mileage upgrade)? If not, the upgrade has not been processed. An e-ticket mismatch will prevent you from checking in, and an agent will most likely have to call Worldperks at check-in to get it straightened out.
Georgebush From New Zealand, joined Jul 2006, 679 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 years 10 months 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 1104 times:
Yes but if he called in then that agent would have re-ticketed it then so that she could see if his upgrade was cleared or not. And I dont know of any other airline that has to reticket someone just for an upgrade.... Are you completely sure about that? At UA it just changes your booking code from B F H W Y or whatever to XF or XC meaning you are on a reward seat in first or business. There is no eticket reissueing that goes on.
With my Father (On NWA as a matter of fact!) They didn't take miles away, they didn't give him any... "Something he did wrong..." they said... We still fly on 'em, but we ensure we get the miles now!
SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (5 years 10 months 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1039 times:
Update: I called and asked if my upgrades where confirmed and they said yes. I also have my seat assginments, 2A for one leg and 3A for the next (MKE-MEM, and MEM-PHX). I re-confirmed the reservation online and everything stayed the same, and I have not been reissued and tickets. Will someone please explain NWs upgrade procedures. When will the miles be deducted? If at all. Will I have any problems at check in if I dont say anything now?
SiouxATC From United States of America, joined Nov 2006, 367 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (5 years 10 months 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 964 times:
So say the ticketing department gets to it, and say I upgraded more of my existing reservations before they took the miles out of my account for my previous upgrade and I no longer had enough miles for the upgrade that I made for my future flights, what would happen? Would they cancel the upgrades that I technically didnt have enough miles for? Would I still have a seat in econ that I paid for? Hmm interesting.
NWAatNGO From Japan, joined May 2004, 48 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (5 years 10 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 956 times:
I experienced something similar recently. I made WBC reservations for me and the wife to travel NGO-DTW roundtrip at the end of the year. I was able to get PerkSaver for the two of us on the outbound, but only my seat was available at the PerkSaver rate on the return, while my wife's return was waitlisted for WBC. I waited until I had enough miles to go ahead and drop the extra 60,000 miles to make sure she was seated in WBC on the return as well. Right away NW deposited 60,000 miles into the locked miles section and upgraded my wife's reservation. The reservation sat like that for over a month and just last Friday I checked my account and found out that they had returned the locked miles to my account, so I am thinking I am now 60,000 miles richer, time to start looking at WBC flights to SPN in October. Started searching and was really happy that NW had decided to issue her ticket at the PerkSaver rate and they were just taking care of a loyal customer (must have been delusional due to the fast approaching weekend).
I didn't end up making any reservations for SPN, was finalizing schedules. Got an email from NW on Sunday saying that they had reissued my wife's ticket, so I check my account ASAP and find that the 'gift' of 60,000 miles I had received the other day was long gone, and this time not just stuck in locked miles. I really don't understand the delay, but am disappointed in myself that I didn't jump at the chance to get a free trip to SPN. As a Platinum I could have made the reservations and then canceled or changed later without any change fees, but I was not smart enough to think of that at the time. It would have been interesting to see what NW would have done in that situation.
FlyABR From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 597 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (5 years 10 months 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 918 times:
Quoting SiouxATC (Reply 19): So say the ticketing department gets to it, and say I upgraded more of my existing reservations before they took the miles out of my account for my previous upgrade and I no longer had enough miles for the upgrade that I made for my future flights, what would happen? Would they cancel the upgrades that I technically didnt have enough miles for? Would I still have a seat in econ that I paid for? Hmm interesting.
does make one wonder if there is a built in "gotcha" since they deduct or lock miles for a frequent flyer ticket almost instantaneoulsy!
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