Northworst! (Northwest)

Member Name: alirigby

Product:	Northwest
Date:	22/11/02 (319 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It gets you there

Disadvantages: Rude staff, Inedible Food, Lack of Entertainment

The background!
A few years ago my father decided he'd had enough of Geordieland and went over to live in America, from that point on all my available holiday and cash has been used for visiting him over there.
I visit the states 2-3 times a year and I tend to have to fly with the cheapest option available. Living in the North East, it's a hassle and expensive to get to London, and I tend to find that KLM offers the most convenient and cheapest service from my local airport.

Hang on, what's KLM got to do with it?
KLM have a alliance with Northwest; you can buy a KLM airline ticket from, say, Teesside to Pittsburgh which involves flying with KLM UK from Newcastle to Amsterdam, KLM or Northwest to Detroit, and then Northwest to Pittsburgh.
This is the journey that I recently did; the flight between Amsterdam and Detroit was operated by Northwest.

Who are Northwest?
Northwest is an american airline with hubs in Detroit and Minneapolis.

What was the aircraft like?
This was not my first time travelling with Northwest and I really should have known better; they are tolerable for internal flights within the USA, but they are not the greatest for the long haul bit!
The aircraft was an old DC-10 (2 seats at each side and 4 seats in the middle) and it looked like it had seen better days although it was comfortable enough. Like most economy cabins, there is not a lot of legroom.
Luckily for me (though not the airline) the flight wasn't full and so I got 2 seats at the side to myself. Unfortunately for me, I had a very large dutchman in front of me with a broken seat which went back so far I was practically eating my dinner off my breasts and, if I had felt inclined, made his scalp readily available for a head massage. The cabin crew decided to hog all other available seats rendering it impossible for myself or him to move.
Anyway, since I'd decided to watch the movie and then sleep,



I felt I could cope with that (though don't you find yourself getting wound up by the most silly things when you're on a long flight?).

What were the crew like?
I do hate to generalise/stereotype, but my experience of American cabin-crew (sorry, flight attendants) has not been good. As an ex-hostie myself, I tend to be hyper-critical, but in this case I feel justified. I feel that cabin-crew should be there to help the passenger, with Northwest you are made to feel indebted to the cabin-crew; a sigh for a request for a glass of water, a groan for a pillow, moaning about passengers who didn't speak English.... And I'm all for fighting back at age-discrimination, but how come they all look over 50? Anyway, a bit more sensitivity and generally a better attitude from the attendants would be good!
Thankfully the flight deck kept communication to a minimum! There's nothing worse than being half asleep and then rudely awoken by the pilot telling you the altitude and what you would be able to see if it wasn't so cloudy/dark!

What was the inflight entertainment like?
Northwest doesn't appreciate the importance of inflight entertainment on a long haul flight (unless you have stacks of dosh and travel business class of course). There was only one 'large' screen at the end of each cabin (approx every 15-20 rows), if you are at the rear of the cabin (like myself) you have a prime view of everyone elses heads and a few bits of the picture, making movie-watching a frustrating activity. I wasn't that bothered in the end, when I discovered the film was Men in Black 2!
I flicked through the magazine; it had no articles/features that grabbed me - not wanting to read about the history of Northwest and someplace in Africa.

What was the food like?
Guess what the choice of meal was? Yes, you've got it - Chicken or Beef! I opted for chicken and then opted not to eat it - th
e sme
ll wa
s not
pleasant and the presentation non-existent. The bread roll was ok! Luckily I had bought some dry roasted peanuts and pepperami before boarding the flight, so this was my evening meal! I avoided the breakfast, served at 4am.

What was the cost?
Well here's where I can't complain, in total the cost of my journey from Newcastle to Pittsburgh (that's 3 flights in all) was £251 including taxes. That was where KLM/Northwest were unbeatable.

Overall...
So it's pretty obvious that I was less than impressed by my experience of Northwest, their only redeeming feature was the price. My advice would be to try and make sure that you avoid flying with them and if you buy a KLM ticket, check that it's KLM flying from Amsterdam and NOT Northwest!

Summary: