Northwest Airways

[xsred]

Anyone travelled on NW airways? We are travelling with them via Detroit in August and I was wondering what their flights were like.

 

[vernon]

DG Jana will be able to give you some idea in a couple of weeks as she's flying from the US to the UK on NorthWest.

 

[yourwelcome]

I flew northwest via amsterdam to Miami a few years ago and they were fine. No complaints whatsoever.

regards

Brian.

p.s. they are part of the KLM family

 

[xsred]

Thanks Yourwelcome. Good to know, I assumed they were ok because i see no complaints on the board about them, which is usually an indication that they are ok!

 

[TraceyL]

Minimal leg room, bad food, miserable stewardesses, cancelled flights, rude check in staff, inappropraite films for a family flight, no seatback TVs.............never again

 

[yourwelcome]

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Minimal leg room, bad food, miserable stewardesses, cancelled flights, rude check in staff, inappropraite films for a family flight, no seatback TVs.............never again
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tracy hopefully this was a rare occurance. Our poster is looking forward to his first trip so please don't put the "sign" on him.

I think your point about minimal leg room is strange as Northwest have a better than average "score" in this dept. I certainly remember being pleased with the room, especially being 6 ft 2 ".
to confirm this please see http://www.uk-air.net/seatpitch.htm

As for inappropriate films for a family flight where you on a northwest charter? As far as I am aware they are a schedule operation so a family flight seems a bit iffy?

I agree the cabin staff are not the most "striking" in comparison to british staff but that is common with alot of the us airlines.
I remember a delta flight a few years ago and our " server" was a lady called Ren'e. She was as old as my mother and had a beard like my dads but was a wonderful person. She explained that for all the gloss we see in the uk about the states the vast majority of people work way beyond normal retirement because they have to.

Also remember that unlike british charter staff, these people usually have to travel onto their home destination and not have three days on the town. Ren'e had that 9 hour flight with us to Miami and then a flight "home" to Cincinnati which must be a good 2-3 hours.

Keep the faith!!!!!!!!!!

Brian

 

[TraceyL]

My definition of a family flight is one where there are children on board (and there were many that day) and showing a 12 rated horror film was hughly disturbing to my 5 year old (and me!).

Miserable does not = old


OK, I'll keep my negative opinions to myself in future

 

[xsred]

All opinions are welcome, good and bad. It's good to get an all round view.

Luckily my kids are older and would have no objections to watching a 12 rated movie, but I can understand the objections if you have younger kids. Was it on all the screens around you or did you have the option of not watching it though?

As for the staff I think it will take a lot to dampen my mood when I am on the way to Florida for the first time, so hopefully my good mood will rub off on them!!!

 

[TraceyL]

Thank you xsred !

Apologies if my earlier reply was a little blunt


It was just post 9/11 so we were all a little miserable at the time, I was travelling with a 5 year old and an 11 month old and they were not geared up to cater for young children at all. We were sat right in front of teh big screen so I ended up putting a blanket over DD's head as that was the only wasy to prevent her from seeing any more scenes from the films (we had The Mummy & Tomb Raider - forget which episodes )

We were unlucky in the fact that our return flight was cancelled, and the one the day after so we had to return a day early (on a four day trip that's a huge chunk out of a holiday) but nobody cares about that when they're making cost cutting decisions

I'm sure your joliday will be great - it's only 2 x 9 hours out of 2 weeks after all - enjoy

 

[xsred]

No problems Tracey. Sounds like it was a dreadful trip with a bit of wrong place wrong time syndrome for good measure, hopefully your next trip will be better!!

We will let you know the results of our trip and hopefully their sprits have lifted since the 9-11 thing.

 

[yourwelcome]

Hello xsred & Tracy.


Tracy I have just read the thread again and I hope you didnt take it personally my reply to you. It certainly wasn't meant to be.

I just felt It was quite damning towards the whole of Northwest Airlines. I just felt that your experience could, in all fairness happen on any airline on any given day.

These things happen unfortunately.

Best wishes

Brian.


xsred you are right by the way. Whatever happens on your flight you have 14 days of bliss to look forward to.

 

[xsred]

Yourwelcome... even better than that, we are going for three weeks so we have 21 days of bliss to look forward to!!

But thanks for your comments, I am sure the flight will be fine.

 

[Grumpy John]

We flew with North West a few years ago and found the ''older'' crew lacked a bit of personality. A smile does not cost anything. And they did not seem to cope very well if anything went wrong. Had to circle Gatwick for half an hour, and a few of the kiddies on board were feeling unwell (slightly). But the crew struggled to cope with it.

Went back to UK carriers after that and whilst they are not perfect they do seem to be able to manage the odd emergency a lot better than their US counterparts.

 

[jersey shark]

As a very frequent traveller ("Million Miler" with Delta), I can tell you that NW (often dubbed "NorthWORST Airlines here) is not a very highly rated airline.

The planes seem old and rickety, the service, and the whole experience of flying them seems less than average. They are the only US carrier that stopped showing movies on domestic flights as a "cost-cutting measure". (Movies? What costs are they talking about???)

However, can they get you where you're going? Absolutely!

And, life is what you make it after all. Have a great trip to Orlando...hope the flight part goes well.

 

[Poohshoney]

We flew Fraankfurt-Detroit-MCO with NWA in November/December. We thought they were ok. Nothing special but we'd definitely use them again.

The planes for the transatlantic part were new and nice. The seat-back tellies weren't as good as the ones we had on Virgin a few years ago. But the biggest problem with them was being told to turn them off because they needed fixing, they'd tell us when we could turn them back on again. Mine was working fine but I dutifully turned it off. They never told us we could turn them on again but after an hour, I noticed everyone else was using them so I did too, no problem. Then at the end they apologised for not being able to repair them. Strange...

The food was mediocre. I can't remember what there was so it can't have been special. I likes me grub! The sandwiches you could buy on the Detroit-MCO bit looked very nice.

We really like Detroit airport and changing was a doddle. We had a McDonald's (needed to be quick!) and they gave us the food the person before had ordered for free - they'd ordered, then left! We don't know if they'd paid or not. Hubby was a very happy man.
The planes to MCO were a bit cramped and old but we've seen worse.

Our crews were ok. Not what you'd call friendly but not quite rude either. We actually found the older ones to be the nicer ones. I have a friend in Michigan and she'd already told me that Michiganers weren't exactly full of the joys of spring (I'm being tactful here!). She said the crews sounded like native Michiganers!

I phoned NWA a week before to reserve seats - we didn't get a single one we'd reserved. But we did get the window seat my hubby wanted. And - our favourite bit - the transatlantic planes had rows of two by the window. Nobody next to us, bliss!

Like I said, we'd use NWA again, definitely. Hope that helped!

 

[jana]

I recently flew on NW from the US to the UK via Detriot. I found them to be fine. They weren't any better or worse then any other airline I have flown on. They did still offer the alcoholic beverages on the international flights for free which some airlines now charge for. They also offered the head phones for the movie for free which again a lot of airlines are now charging for.
I found the food no different then on any airline.
The crew where very nice.
My only inconvenience was my return flight from Detriot to Pittsburgh had been cancelled due to problems with the plane. I was booked on a later flight and they gave me a $5 phone card and a copoun for a discount on an airline ticket with them for the inconvenience.
The Detroit airport was very nice and had a lot of nice places to eat.
All in all I'd say they are fine to travell with.

 

[xsred]

Thanks for that info, glad it's not all bad!! We can now look forward to travelling with NWA and I am sure they will be fine. We've got 3 weeks of bliss at the other end so as long as we've got that to focus on, it'll be a breeze!!!

 

[ptuk]

Hi i flew to New York last year on NWA the flights were booked through KLM but as they are partners our flight was with North West on the way there.

There were three of us travelling two of us were put by the window as it was a 2-4-2 layout and another on the aisle seat together i thought it would have been nice of them to put us all together in the middle but its not a major negative.

The plane was old and not up to a standard i would consider suitable for long haul flights they only had the one screen and as i was right at the back i nearly had to break my neck to see it not that the films were up to much anyway but it would have been nice to be able to see things!

Staff were ok not the best or worse i have exprienced on flights same with the food! Good Thing was they were giving out free beer

Legroom was awful but thats a fairly normal thing for economy class on flights these days!

I had wanted to fly with Virgin funnily enough it was not that much extra to do that but who i was travelling did not want pay the extra at the time. If you have the extra money available always fly Virgin to Orlando as my best flights have always been with them.

I would not fly with NWA again based on that exprience but its the same with all companies not everyone is going to get a good flight all the time. I just think they need to up the standard of aircraft for a long haul flight!

Sorry for Negative thoughts i am sure your flight will be fine Hope you have a great trip to orlando.

Paul