Northwest Airline experience?
 

Northwest Airline has a good fare to Rome from Boston going through and changing in Amsterdam. Anyone tried this or is familiar with the reliability of this airline?

Reliability of Northwest? Well, if you ask the thousands of people who were booked at the end of June and July on one of the many canceled domestic flights (not even pilots), they will tell you plenty of horror stories.

But we're almost end of August now, and they have canceled many flights. And they only affect domestics.

Anyways, currently NW has to BOS-AMS flights. NW38 is on their new Airbus 330-300 with very good entertainment system. NW60 is on one of their newly reconfigured 757 (single aisle) with generous legroom but no personal video screen.

AMS is one of the nicest airports in the world for transfer. Your AMS-FCO leg will be on KLM.

They have good fares because the service is so bad. I flew them from Newark to Rome, and my luggage was detained both ways. I actually enjoyed the flight, but if something goes wrong, don't be surprised.

Having lived in Michigan most of our lives, naturally we've flown NW many times (Detroit is one of their hubs). We've also flown United, American, and other airlines many times. Yes, this summer business has been disgraceful (they're hiring more pilots), but on the whole they are no better or worse than anyone else. I've had cancelled flights, been bumped, equipment delays, etc. on all airlines. All of our flights DTW to AMS have been great, with excellent equipment and on-time arrivals, and we expect the same next week as we take off to Europe. I'd take NW over British Air anytime!

I flew NWA/KLM from Boston to Barcelona via Amsterdam (love Schiphol). The KLM legs were late between AMS and BCN (in both directions). We almost missed our return flight from AMS to BOS and literally had to run to make the plane. Sadly, I didn't get to shop in Schiphol as I had planned.

I will say that KLM was very creative about the late flights. One excuse was "Our plane, she is late. She comes from Rome." Well, now, that explains it.

NW is about the only airline I fly on and I will say that I have been totally satisfied with their service.

I flew this summer from MSP to AMS (and back) and the flight were on the A330, which I think is a great plane.

My daughter flew NWA from Syracuse to Tokyo last March. On the return the flight was delayed 2 hours. NWA gave her 5,000 miles and a $100 voucher. She got into Detroit with plenty of time to still transfer. Oh, and the ticket I bought for her was about as cheap as you could get ($850 r/t), so that was pretty fair.

She was fine with the flight in both directions.

dave

Daveesl, how did she get those extra miles and voucher? We ended up getting home about 3 hours late on Sunday due to an NWA delay from Amsterdam so if this compensation is par for the course, I'm in for it!

My DH and I have become big fans of NW over the last few years. They are always able to beat the fares for CMH to CDG and they have a fleet of new Airbus 330's, with seatback tv's that have a ton of movie channels.

We flew BA for years and will have to fly them soon to use our ff miles before they expire, but we'll contnue to fly NWA whenever possible now.

Never had a bad experience with them, something I sure can't say about BA or USAirways.

We flew Northwest round trip last November from Seattle to Bangkok via Tokyo and were very pleased. Early arrivals, better leg room than most in coach, one of our most comfortable long haul flights ever.

From all the recent comments I've read in various boards, NW is like two companies in one. Domestic service is pretty bad, while international is very decent.

The OP won't be flying any NW's domestic flights, so they'll be riding the "good" NW.

I travel to Italy at least twice each year and fully enjoy NW/KLM-just try to go with carry on baggage and everything else falls into place! Great service and love AMS airport for a connection spot.

We took Northwest from Nashville through Detroit and on to Amsterdam last March. Returned Paris, Detroit Nashville. No problems either way and we enjoyed the video screens. Food was horrible but then isn't it always?

We've flown NorthWorst many times both within the USA and internationally. Despite the joke nickmane, we haven't had any better or worse experiences with NWA than with any other airline(and we've flown a lot).

I flew Northwest serval times on the Tampa-Detroit-Paris route and I found it much better in economy class than the other American airlines.

To WillTravel,

From what she told me, they just offered it to everyone at the gate in Narita. Perhaps it is a compensation requirement in Japan if a flight is delayed, but I don't know for certain.

dave

You will fly KLM and the planes are old and small. I flew in May (Newark to Bologna)and the flight over was ok but on the way back we were loaded and ready to leave the gate and they ammounced that the auto pilot wasn't working and we would need to deplane and be assigned to new flight. We stood in line for over 6 hours with only water offered to us after 3 hours. Then my husband's luggage was lost. It wouldn't be my first choice.

We flew in July from Seattle to Amsterdam in Business. The international flights out of SeaTac weren't effected by cancellations. In Business it was extremely comfortable on the new Airbus's, food was not good, but rarely is anyway. Last year I flew in coach on the same flight and it was fine. What I don't like about NWA in coach is that they don't let you get a seat assignment when buying a ticket. I forgot to call and get one while in Barcelona and ended up in a seat against the wall that didn't recline as much. Now they are charging extra to pre-book a seat and for "desireable" seats such as bulkheads. If that doesn't bother you then I will say their prices are good and the Amsterdam airport is money!