Anyone Flown with Northwest??

[Claire4dpins]

Hello All

Just wondering if anyone has any experience flying with Northwest to Orlando?

We have been many times & flown with many different airlines Virgin, BA, United, Continental & American - is Northwest some kind of 'low-cost' type airline - they seem to be the cheapest - but not by that much! We are trying to plan a last minute type trip in early Jan to use our annual passes.
Thanks,
Claire

 

[Hilary]

Bumping the thread up for you, Claire - maybe someone can help

 

[Eaglet]

Hi Claire,

We flew with Northwest Airlines in August 2002. We flew from Gatwick to Detroit and then on to Orlando. It was the cheapest flight we could find in August and it was a last minute booking.

The planes were quite old and noisy. On the return journey there was a mechanical problem with the plane due to take us from Orlando to Detroit and we were informed of this at the check in queue at Orlando Airport. Had we known in advance, we would have stayed on an extra night in our villa! Therefore, we missed the connecting flight on to Gatwick. They put us up in a hotel near Orlando Airport for the night, there were four of us, my husband, my step daughter and my son, then aged 3. They gave us some vouchers for food to eat in the hotel which just about covered the cost of the cheapest meal in the hotel. So we were stuck in the hotel with no transport - not ideal with 2 young children.

We were told by an American in the check in queue that their nickname is Northworst, and this type of thing happens often!!!

Apparently, Icelandair have a good reputation so I am told and they are quite reasonably priced.

 

[TraceyL]

We flew NWA to Minneapolis for what was supposed to have been a 4 night shopping trip in 2001 - not something I'd repeat in a hurry.

The plane was old, the food was below usual airline's standards. The stewardesses were miserable as sin and were not at all amused when I asked for baby food to be heated up (DD2 was 11 months old and they hadn't got a child's meal for her even though we had prebooked one). We had bulkhead seats as we were travelling with an infant but the space was used to park the trolleys whilst the trays etc were being cleared so room was very restricted with a little one.

Our return flight was cancelled - a message was left at our hotel (it was 7 weeks after 9/11) and because of DH's job (in the forces) we had no option but to return a day early as the following day's flight was also cancelled). I checked at the NWA office in the Mall of America to ensure all our prebooked requests were still valid and I was assured that we would get the same seats (not true), I even checked that both children's meals were booked this time - not true. When we checked in we didn't even have seats - we were effectively standby ! We were told that a family had already checked into 'our' seats (not true !) We had to wait at the gate for an age to be called to be given our seat numbers - it was awful ! We were split up in the end - although some of us were in the bulkhead seats that were supposedly already taken. No children's meals were available for our DDs - apparently we had to prebook them ( )

NWA gave us £75 vouchers to use against a future booking after I wrote them a strongly worded letter - needless to say we haven't used them !

 

[Eaglet]

We also got the vouchers after making a complaint, but upon examination the majority were "out of date"!

 

[TraceyL]

We send ours back every year and get them renewed

 

[Tinkabelle]

Uh oh!

My partners parents are flying out with Northwest a week today! They are dreading it, as both 60 and getting tired of long-haul at the best of times!

Have we not got any positive experiences I can tell them?!?!

 

[CarolynU]

We flew out of Tampa with them last year after Xmas to return to the UK. We ended up changing planes and airports for 3 days solidly due to cancelled flights and planes with technical difficulties. At one point I was so confused I didn't even know which airport I was in, nor the day of the week. We eventually landed at Gatwick 3 days after our departure, where we then had to transfer to Heathrow which had been our departure airport, and was where our car was parked. They sent us a Xmas hamper as compensation! Having said that their ground staff were tremendous, and went out of their way to assist us as much as was possible given that their air fleet seemed to be letting them down. Believe it or not I would still use them again. Carolyn

 

[Penny12]

I know someone who has flown Detroit/London using Northwest twice. They never mentioned any problems and the first time the flight was early, 2nd one on time and both times landed early for the return leg. They are a decent sized operation and do a big code-share thing with KLM.

Just wanted to let you know that atleast someone hasn't had a bad experience

 

[Manatee]

We flew with them to MCO via Minnesota a few years back, i cannot say the flight was bad, at the end of the day it's just getting from a to b and only lasts a few hours, try flying out on an RAF VC10 to Hong Kong on a flight lasting 24hours, now that was a pain.

 

[Tinkabelle]

Thank you! It's great to hear that some people have flown successfully with North West! Hope it goes smoothly for my partners parents or we'll never hear the end of it!! Oh well, only 5 days to go til we hear fro ourselves!

 

[Claire4dpins]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to give your responses - UMMM - it sounds like, though it could be OK, it might not be worth the risk of going with Northwest!!

I guess I will start hunting for something quite cheap!
Thanks for all the advice,
Claire

 

[DCLuvinit]

WOW - I am surprised at all of the negative experiences posted with NWA. I almost always use them to fly within the states, from Orlando, and just returned from a trip to the UK - Orlando to Detriot to Gatwick roundtrip. I had a very pleasant flight and wouldn't describe the planes as old - I rarely have problems with mechanicals and fly every few months. The food isn't great, but I never rely on airline food to satisfy Hope this helps!

 

[yourwelcome]

I flew with northwest to Miami via Amsterdam and can only say they were as good as anything else I have flown with.

Security was spot on with all passengers getting interviewed before boarding. Flight attendents were very good. ( if you want models then avoid nw. However I am more concerned with their service than how they look so i can only say the crew who looked after us were great.

A big plus for me was their punctuality. If your facing a journey of 12 hours plus in total then every minute delayed is painful. over the four flights there and back we were delayed by 5 minutes.

My only gripe is they dont use Manchester, so i have to transfer at Amsterdam if I want to use them. This involves a 06.10 am flight from manchester to amsterdam.

My first choice is delta with a 11.25am dept arriving in orlando approx 12 hours later via Atlanta.

word of warning!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have never been through a hub in the states do a bit of research just so you know what to expect.


GOOD PLANNING ALWAYS SAVES TIME.

ENJOY


BRIAN