Northwest Airlines?
 

Never flown Northwest before -- how miserable will it be spending 20 hours in Coach (from California to Bangkok)? Feedback appreciated...

Susan, it's hideous. I've done it 4 times and there's nothing good about that long in coach class. Nothing against Northwest, they're fine, it's just being cooped up that long with so little room is horrible. There are a few things you could do to make it slightly more bearable: <BR>- get to the airport as early as possible, and ask the ticket agent for an exit row seat. If you're reasonably young and fit looking they'll give it to you. These seats have the most leg room which you are really gonna need.<BR>- bring snacks (nothing really salty) and extra water.<BR>- bring books, music, portable DVD, anything you can carry on to alleviate the boredom.<BR>- get up and walk areound and stretch as much as possible<BR>- bring sleeping pills if you have trouble sleeping on planes. If you don't sleep on the plane at all, you will arrive totally fried and you'll crash at the hotel as soon as you get there, and your bio clock will be all screwed up. <BR><BR>Good luck!

Northwest is no worse than any of the other American airlines. International flights typically have a little more room in coach than domestic flights. Do try to get an exit row if possible. Elfie's suggestions are all good. A 20 hour flight is a long flight, no matter where you are seated. If your flight arrives in Bangkok at night try to stay up for most of your fligth so you can go to sleep when you arrive and reset your body's clock.

Susan, if it's the routing I'm thinking, then it's less than 20 hours of flight time and it's broken into two segments; LAX to Tokyo (perhaps 10 hours) and then Tokyo to Bangkok (around 6 hours). You'll arrive late at night so you can crash when you arrive at your hotel and everything will be fine in the morning. :o) <BR><BR>The very best seats on the NWA 747 I believe you are taking are in Row 35, seats B&amp;C and H&amp;J. Those are exit row seats with virtually unlimited leg room and they also deviate from the typical 3-4-3 seating in coach to a 2-4-2 configuration to allow for the bump-out in the door that houses the emergency slide. <BR><BR>Prepare yourself mentally for the trip and you should be fine. (Some folks even get a couple of Valium prescribed for good measure). Happy contrails!

Susan. If you can affort it, Northwest has a sale on right now to Bangkok for not much more than Coach, you could fly First class. When are you going to Bangkok. I'll be there from Dec. 19-25.<BR>Hope you like it when you get there, service on NW flights is pretty good, even in coach.

I have bulkhead seating on one way - what is the difference between that and &quot;exit row&quot;?

<BR>The bulkhead is the very front of each row of seats in a section, there is a wall in front of you rather than seats. These are actually good seats, as no one will be tilting their seat back into your face, and you can lean your legs up against the wall. Your TV screen will be in the wall in front of you, assuming there are individual screens. If not, you may not be able to see the movie that easily.<BR><BR>The exit row is a row with an emergency exit in it. In some cases, this will be a very wide area, maybe 3-4 feet before the next row of seats. Some people like these because of all the open space in front of you. I don't like them because they tend to be right where the galley is and there is lots of cart and people traffic, and the lights in the galley stay on for the whole trip. <BR>