Flying Northwest?

[GilesFamily]

Sorry if this is a wee bit off topic for this forum, but just wondering if anyone has flown Northwest Airlines and what their experience was flying? Our travel agent booked us on Northwest flights to Orlando and back (Canada), and since then I've heard that Northwest has a somewhat less-than-good reputation...i.e. uncomfortable seats, and rude staff. Just wondering if this is the norm, or just stories of a few unfortunate incidents...

 

[ratfam]

We have often had to travel where, for us, Northwest was the only option and other than it being difficult to book standard frequent flyer tickets I haven't found the experience on Northwest to be different from any other airline (maybe Canadian based airlines are friendlier?) and I have had generally positive experiences. So IMO I wouldn't worry about it too much. I would, however, strongly advise you to buy trip insurance if you haven't already--for our last cruise due to weather problems and flight delays our flight almost didn't go, and I am sure that the only reason it flew out was because we were in a Northwest hub and they pretty much control the airport. If our flight had been cancelled there was no other available space and we wouldn't have made the cruise.

 

[spsneman]

We flew Northwest last Nov 2004 for our trip to Disneyworld. The night before our trip we got a recording that the flight was going to be delayed and instead of leaving at 6 am, we didn't leave till 1:30 pm due to freezing rain. When we arrived for check in Northwest gave all four of us (2 kids) 4 vouchers for $15 each for food in any airport, 4 free calling phone cards with 10 minutes each and a discount on our new booked Northwest flight within the next 4 months. We thought this was extremely generous due to the inconvience was not their fault. Staff were very friendly and we had no problems at all. Only slight inconvenience was no free meal service so you had to plan ahead.

 

[pdchris]

I've flown Northwest many times (Prolly because the airport I fly out of, Grand Rapids, MI, Northwest handles 85% of the traffic. Anyway, I've never had any problems at all. In fact, we're flying to Orlando on NW this year, too.
I remember early in the year back in 2000, I received a letter from NW saying that because I was such a frequent flyer (which I really wasn't), every time I booked Economy, if they had room, they would upgrade me to First Class! boy, that was a nice change.

 

[Stinasmom]

Two days ago my DH came down with an inner ear infection and the doctor told him not to fly. He was able (through their cust svc reps over the phone) to cancel his flight leaving today and get full credit toward a future trip...only minus a $25 change fee. We were surprised how smoothly this went...not always expecting to be treated fairly!
We fly NW on other occasions as they are a partner with Alaska---our favorite airline. No complaints.

 

[the kabuki]

We fly NWA all the time, mostly because they're the majority out of Detroit Metro. Never once had a problem, no lost bags, no delayed flights except one in a really bad snowstorm and even then it was only for 30 min. to de-ice the plane. Everyone friendly and helpful. Flew Spirit one time and that was enough for us, now it's NWA all the time.

 

[smilingmouse]

NWA is the only airline that flies to Duluth, so I use them every time I fly (4x this year) and I haven't had any problems....

Have a safe flight!

 

[mmouse37]

Our very good friend lives in CT and is a pilot for Northwest....the company was redistributing pilots for a 2 year period to other parts of the country and gave our friends a choice.....do you want to live in Detroit or Hawaii for 2 years with all moving expenses paid........guess which one they picked!!

Aloha!!!

 

[Rence]

My partner flies for work a lot. He uses a number of different airlines. In the PAST NWA was his least favorite. He had horror story after horror story of rude staff, gross incompetence etc.

However, he recently mentioned to me that NWA seems to have really turned things around. He has realized that all his recent flights have been great and the old problems appear to be gone.

So you may be hearing about a lingering reputation for a dark time in NWA's history as opposed to NWA today.

 

[kkmauch]

Because I live in MN and NWA controls everything here, I usually end up flying them if I want a direct flight somwhere. I don't really have any complaints about NWA, except for their prices. We really need SWA here to give them a good run for their money!

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

We just got back from a trip to WDW using Northwest and they were fine. The very first leg of our flight down used an older turboprop whose seats may as well have been cement blocks, but the other three planes we used were comfortable. The staff were among the nicest I've encountered traveling - very professional and genial. The only problem we had was out of the airline's control for the most part - we were delayed in landing at Detroit due to wind and snow, so we had to literally run from one end of the airport to the other (thank God for that monorail for part of our mad dash!) to avoid missing our connecting flight. While I greatly prefer to fly TMA because they are the only non-stop airline from my area, I would have no problems booking Northwest in the future.

 

[needmyears]

We have a booked flight on NWA in June to Orlando and so far I have not been very impressed. First, they changed our return flight time by 2 hours, which I know happens and it wasn't a big deal. So, we called and asked for a different flight that worked better for us and they were happy to change it. Since then (about a month) I occasionly go online and check our reservations to make sure the flight times haven't changed again. 2 days ago I checked our reservation and somehow we got changed to a completely different flight and the flight we we had been booked on was totally full. We called NWA and they said they didn't have any idea how that happened but they had received many calls from other people about the same thing. Anyway, we've had enough changing and just left it the way it was, and I hope it stays that way. We are from the midwest and NWA is big around here. I've never heard of anyone having problems like this. I hope it's just a fluke.

 

[DebbieB]

I've flow NW PIT/MSP 3 times this year for business. One flight to MSP was cancelled, I had to take a connection through Detroit instead, I got a call at 5:00am (9:00am flight). One thing I don't like about them is they hold alot of seats for their elite flyers, more than USAir who I usually fly. My last trip I did not have assigned seats either way, I had to get them 24 hours before when I did online check-in. Their seats seemed the same as any other airline. The crew seemed friendly. Sometimes they gave me a whole can of diet pepsi rather than just the cup.

 

[Pinnie]

I have flown NWA out of DTW way too many times to count and I would give them a general overall grade of a C+. We have booked flights in advance only to have them changed. I totally understand weather and mechanical problems, but once they put up a shedule, they need to KEEP to it (SWA does). If you book a flight and the price goes DOWN and you ask for an adjustment, they deduct $25 off the refund. (SWA doesn't) I find that WRONG.

Also, I was delayed a few times because the employees weren't happy the way the contract negotiations were going. This caused numerous delays for pax. Also, I am not a fan of their World Perks Program. I have over 50,000 miles and they are useless for what I want (SWA RR program is much more user friendlly)

The prices NWA charges for flights out of DTW are high because we are a hub. Whenever possible, I will use SWA or SPIRIT.

pinnie

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Northwest uses St.Paul/Minneapolis as its main hub so we fly it often. We have never had a problem with them. When their flights are cheaper or have better departure/arrival times I would never think twice about using them.

 

[vfb2girls]

NWA is the only airline that I use for my trips. Being from ND we do not have many choices of what airlines to fly with so we usually stick with NWA. I have always found their service to be good and never have had any problems with them. Now if only they would lower their fares!