Northwest Airlines

[jwnandsn]

Does anyone have any information on NorthWest Airlines. We are from Ontario, Canada and are planning a trip to WDW in December, 2003. We have discovered that we can fly from Detroit to Orlando for half the price it costs to fly on Air Canada from Toronto to Orlando. What is NorthWest like as an airline, good, bad, etc. Do their prices tend to increase the closer you get to your departure date or would the price quoted right now be too high or the best available? Also has anyone flown out of Detroit Airport? Any problems, tips we should know, etc. We would be leaving our vehicle at Park N Fly for the two weeks we are away. Would appreciate any information,

Sandra

 

[wenabre]

I am sure that there are alot of people who will disagree with me when I say this....but....I would walk before I ever flew with them again!

When we flew with them, we had no help at all even though my late husband was in a wheelchair and I was using a cane. When I asked why they didn't pre board like other airlines, we were told that we should have been standing ready to board by the gate entrance. In other words it was our fault. I said we were right by the check in desk, could they not see?
Also on the plane, one of the staff tried to push my Husband out of the way as we were trying to get him in his seat and told him to hurry up. This plane had two aisles, go figure.

Not to mention the food was terrible, stone cold etc, but one can live without food for a few hours. When I asked for some water for my husband to take some medication it took three rings and then I went down to the galley, to find staff standing around talking. Oh and my last comment, the plane was filthy !!!

This is my honest opinion from our expierence, I hope yours is better.

 

[TimNDansMom]

Hi Sandra! Welcome to the Canadian DIS Boards!

I personally haven't flown out of Detroit on NWA but my husband does it all the time for business trips and hasn't said he's had any problems. He's away on business right now but I'll check with him, to be sure about that. He saves his company a lot of money doing this and since we are in Woodstock (he works in Guelph) he doesn't mind.

I am giving Southwest Airlines, out of Buffalo, a try for my October trip. I just got my mastercard bill and it is costing me $221 C$ There have been good reports about SWA here on the boards. You might want to also look into those flights. I would think that if your trip is towards the beginning of December you could get some good deals on flights.

 

[PoohBWV]

We have flown on NW many times. It has always been on time, except for once during Hurricane Andrew! I don't think they are even serving food anymore so that is not an issue. DTW is not the greatest airport in the world, but it is very busy. They do have a new terminal there however which is much nicer than the old one. Detroit is a hub for Northwest, so they fly a great number of planes in and out of there and that is why some of there prices are so good. If you are planning on flying from DTW, I would also check www.spiritair.com. They are usually very competitive with NW.

 

[eleanor]

We flew on NW last March and the flight was fine. WE were on time bothways. Take food!!! You get the smallest bag of pretzels I have ever seen.WE took the RobtQ and stayed overnight at the Best Western and the shuttle took us to the airport. Our tickets were $383. can.

 

[katypop]

we flew NW last year from detroit with no problems. flight was on time , no meal but the flight isn't really that long anyway. i flew Air Canada this year and really the only difference was the food, i got a "meal" that was so-so with AC. one big difference for us though, we took robert Q to detroit and didn't have to handle our baggage at all except to check in at detroit. with AC we had to take a short flight to TO and then on to MCO. it was a big hassle with luggage. when i got to TO i had to pick up my luggage, go through customs and then re-check luggage, on return they could only give me a boarding pass to TO so i again had to pick up luggage in TO go through customs then recheck luggage. going from detroit seemed a lot easier, and cheaper.
katypop

 

[TimNDansMom]

Eleanor, did the RobertQ take you directly to the Best Western?

 

[eleanor]

Hi Yes the RQ will take you to most of the hotels near the airport. It was very easy to cross the border. The BW had a shuttle that took us right to the airport. The BW also gave free breakfast.

 

[MikeJ]

Welcome to the boards, Sandra. What part of London are you in? (We're in Oakridge.)

There are a number of people over on the Transportation Board who refer to Northwest as Northworst, although we've never had serious problems.

Our last 2 trips down we've flown out of DTW, once on Northwest and once on Spirit. Both were fine, although the return flight with Spirit was delayed about 4 hours because of equipment problems. That's the problem with the smaller airlines - they don't have the large number of planes to pull one in from somewhere else if there's a problem.

We're going down again in August, and this time we are flying Air Tran out of Flint, MI. Air Tran has direct non-stop flights to MCO, and it's costing us about Cdn$1230 for the 4 of us. Air Tran is a discount airline, no-frills, but many of their planes are newer Boeing 717s (basically the same as the DC9). The nice thing is we're not flying from DTW. (The airport is more in line with the London Airport in terms of size.) A number of people on the Transportation Board really like flying out of Flint. Not to mention that on-site parking at the airport's economy lot is only US$25/week.

- Mike

 

[TimNDansMom]

That's good to know, Eleanor. I always thought that Robt Q would only take you to the airport.

 

[jwnandsn]

How do you add the calendar at the bottom of your posts showing how much time to go until your next trip. I also notice that some people post details of their past trips, how is this done?

Thanks,
Sandra

P.S. Plus your pictures, how do you do that?

 

[TimNDansMom]

Sandra, you will find the answers to your questions over on the Tech Board. There are instructions on how to add the counter there too.

 

[jwnandsn]

Thanks to all of you that posted responses to my question, your information and advice have been very valuable. Looks like we are going to give flying out of Flint, MI a try. We can get a flight direct to Orlando and back for $99.00(US) each way, that's a great saving from flying out of Toronto. We are going to two weeks in December and will probably go for the Annual Passes to give us more flexibility.

Thanks again, I will definitely be posting more questions here as our plans come together.

Sandra

 

[MikeJ]

Hmph. It's too bad Air Tran doesn't give referral bonuses.

We're gone in August, I'll let you know how we fare with them.

- Mike

 

[twinz]

What about tryng Southwest airlines out of Buffalo? We flew with them last September and had no problems. Also the drive is a lot shorter to Buffalo from Toronto then it is to Detriot. Or you can try Jetblue, also out of Buffalo. They do stop over in NYC though.