Travelling Detroit-Seattle-Honolulu on Northwest. I recall hearing some time ago about problems at Northwest (Financial?). Can anyone enlighten me or provide their experience on Northwest to Hawaii.
Thanks.

Anyone?

Flew NWA from Atlanta-Minneapolis-Honolulu in November. I used to live in Minneapolis and have logged many, many miles on NWA both domestic and overseas. They seem to have continual financial problems due to some really bad mismanagement several years back, but it doesn't seem to affect their service too much. Most of my flights have been trouble-free.

One of my husband's good friends from graduate school works for NWA, and they're doing a little bit of cleaning house (layoffs), but as far as she knows they're not going under any time soon.

Have a great trip!

I have has a terrible time on Northwest. Other airline attendants have told me that it is the least desirable airline to work for. I think this accounts for the attitude. They will never ever help you with your luggage once on board even if at the last minute you are scrambling to check it as they won't let it in the cabin. This happened to me when the plane was flying domestically and half empty. It was a Pullman I have been able to put under seats on planes as small as embraer jets.Remember asking an attendant if she could help me read my ticket as there was a connection. She laughed and said I don't know how to do that. VERY VERY POOR customer service.
This may have changed because they have consistantly done poorly on industry wide surveys looking at customer satisfaction. My experience was in 99.

Having said all of that if the price is right this summer I will be taking them to Japan with a stop off in Hawaii on the return. So don't worry just don't expect great service. I like to think of these cheaper couriers as public transportation, an air-bus with real meaning.

Northwest to Hawaii from Seattle was downright awful! Their planes are old and extraordinarily uncomfortable - the service isn't great either. I'm 5'2" tall and my knees were uncomfortably pressed against the seat in front of me. I felt particularly badly for the men on the flight. It's a 5-1/2 hour flight and within an hour after take-off, there were dozens of men just hanging around in the back of the plane trying to give their cramped legs a break.

We're headed back to Kauai next week and booked United. We can change plans at SFO and take a direct flight to Kauai from there.

Northwest is fine. Not the best but certainly OK. Have a great flight!

Signed,
Jealous

I've been to Germany via US Air and to Hawaii via NW. I was more comfortable seat-wise on the NW flight, but had great entertainment value on US Air with in seat video (in economy)!

I was quite disappointed to find that we didn't have in-seat video on the NW flight since it is an 8-hour flight from Minneapolis. But at least my audio system worked. On the flight home from Honolulu there were a number of seats from row 35 to the galley who had no audio, no lights, no air. NW acknowledged the problem and offered those passengers a free drink on this particular flight or a coupon for a drink on a future flight. I was sure relieved that I wasn't sitting in any of those seats!

Overall though, my limited experience with flying (the two trips mentioned above, plus a flight via United to Kentucky) has found none of the airlines to be that bad. I am sure that I flew more frequently I may develop opinions, but for the vacation traveller I would say that the NW flight was ok.