SEA_lurker
Jul 7, 03, 3:04 am
Preface/disclaimer:
While I can't emphasize enough that the many professionally done trip reports on ft have provided hours of enjoyable reading for this lurker, my goal is not to compete with their quality and finesse, but rather to present a brief and pragmatic assessment of the flying experience that might be of use to someone utilizing the same carrier or airports.
SEA on 7/1: no lines, and a tale of 2 NW 742s
Fear-stricken by TV news reports about the endless security lines and lack of TSA personnel at SEA, I printed by boarding pass for 1A at nwa.com and headed to the airport unusually early (for me). Imagine my surprise this late Tuesday morning when at 11.45 am downstairs at the main terminal, at the security checkpoint screening all S-gates-bound pax, there was... no line at all! No "pre-line" for photo-id check upstairs, and no activity whatsoever in most of the checkpoint. I briefly noticed that construction of the new subway at SEA, the one that will soon ferry pax to main-terminal gates, is nearly over, and train test runs are underway. In any case, I promptly boarded the old subway (the shuttle between the main terminal and the S gates).
Upon emerging upstairs in the south terminal, I immediately noticed not 1, but 2 NW 747-200s parked practically side by side at the gates nearest the Worldclub. Other SEA-based NW ff's will see this is somewhat strange, because we normally have just one NW 742, the one to/from NRT. I quickly determined that the NW flight 007 to NRT that day was operated by 742 reg. N638US. Ship 6638 obviously has not been repainted for some time, and this was starkly obvious because it was parked next to the other NW 742 (did not get #), which sported a shiny, new coat of paint, albeit in the traditional (old) NW livery. (I am not sure if the 742s will be repainted in new livery; I hope not, because I just can't stand the new livery.) This other, recently repainted 742 turned out to be the HNL flight. Whether this was a one-time replacement of the HNL-bound D10, or an adjustment due to higher volumes, I do not know. On the other side of the terminal, as usual, NW's AMS-bound D10 could be seen.
July 1, 2003: NW 212 SEA-DTW 12.45p-8.00p
Preboarding of the 753 began roughly at 12.15, shortly after the adjacent gate door where the 12.10 MSP departure boarded earlier had been shut. By the # of pax at the gate I would estimate a ~ 80% load for the DTW flight, although F was completely full. Boarding was, as usual for NW 757's, through the 2L door, which I like -- there is no parade of Y-pax through the F cabin, no excuse to not serve predeparture bevs, and most importantly there is the special feeling one gets when entering an aircraft and turning left. I had never been on a 753 prior, and was slightly disappointed to observe that the seat pitch and the seats themselves (cloth, dark blue color scheme, no "wings" like on CO) looked exactly as they do on the dated 755s, even though the 753s are fairly new. The 753 of course is quite a bit longer than the 757-200 (755), resulting in a few more rows of Y (and a miserable u/g ratio). In F, the cabin difference is in row 1, where one finds 4 seats, not the 2 in the 755, for a total of 24 (vs. 22) F seats. Strangely, seats 1A and B are superior to 1C and D in one regard: there is an extra space at the bottom of the bulkhead wall (marked with a little "no stowage" sticker, though spacious enough to allow illicit stowage of small items, which I gladly took advantage of). There is absolutely no wall cutout for extra legroom in front of 1C and D (I checked). Now, making this info public probably means that I won't be able to get 1A on NW 753s anytime soon, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif but that is quite all right: after a recent conversation with a WP supervisor in which I was told that an overseas mileage run to bump myself to gold would be a good idea (!) and from which I concluded that the ff program is all downhill from here for us lowly Silvers, it's not as if I'm too likely to ride in F in the future at all!
Predeparture drinks were offered. Lately NW has been very good about this, and in fact they were offered on all 4 segments on this trip. We pushed back right on time, taxied for a very little while and took off toward the north. Takeoffs toward the north are normal at SEA whenever high-pressure weather systems are over the area (typically during the summer, and during any dry spells in the winter). There was a substantial amount of nasty lateral chop while climbing through the very low altitudes, indicative of a bit of crosswind. Perhaps due to the daytime takeoff, we did not do a "question mark" over Elliott Bay and Puget Sound (a possible noise-abatement maneuver frequently done after northbound takeoffs of NW's 1 AM SEA-MSP flight), but rather continued to the north over the city and turned east shortly thereafter. Soon, fabulous views of the Cascade Mountains were to be had, as skies remained just partly cloudy. The Cascades, with much of the winter snow still in evidence in places, look particularly lovely this time of year. I could see many brilliant-blue glacial lakes surrounded by snow, and I have no doubt they would make for great hiking destinations -- but I digress. Our flying time to DTW was a standard 3 h 38 m.
The lunch choice in F was ravioli vs. chicken. Due to a recent unpleasant experience with ravioli on JFK-MSP (not this trip), and even though SEA-based catering might be higher-quality than JFK-based catering, I opted for the chicken by default, also ordering a glass of the Sebastiani (?) Calif. chardonnay. While paper menus on domestic NW are gone for good, the chicken tasted like a "blast from the (paper menu days of the) past;" this was the "chicken breast with corn/tortilla pie" entree that I remember was served regularly between MSP and the east coast in 2000/2001. The food was served all at once. I lamented the untimely passing of the shrimp appetizer (replaced these days by something artichoke-based and inedible-looking) and the ice cream (replaced by a very plain chocolate cake slice). Oh well!
The flight was uneventful and the skies remained mostly clear as we cruised a bit south of the Twin Cities. I could clearly see the Minneapolis skyline, St. Paul, and MSP itself, a bit to the left of our flight path. We began to pick up a tiny bit of light chop as we proceeded eastward, over the lake, and toward DTW. Our final approach into DTW was parallel to that of another NW a/c (looked like a 320, couldn't be sure due to distance) which ended up landing just seconds before we landed on the parallel runway. Gate arrival was on-time. All in all, a nearly perfect (though food could be better), on-time flight; which describes also most of my domestic NW travel experience over the past 3 years.
DTW on 7/1: Problem booking WBC to Europe in the summer? Try "volunteering!"
I slowly made my way to the north end of the WorldGateway. I could have taken the train or at least used the moving walkways, but when time allows I strongly prefer walking the whole way. DTW in the evening has a rather low-key atmosphere to it; the Asian and west coast flights are long-gone, and the only measure of excitement is provided by the crowds of tourists heading to Europe. They could be seen along the west side of the terminal, waiting to board AMS-, LGW-, and CDG-bound D10s.
Since my boarding gate for the JFK segment was in this area, I overheard a repeated announcement to the following effect: "Ladies and gentlemen, our LGW flight tonight is overbooked. Volunteers will be accommodated in business class on our CDG flight and put on a connection to LGW arriving at 12.30 pm London time tomorrow." I could hardly believe my ears. No, I was not surprised that a midweek transatlantic flight was overbooked despite all the (unfounded) whining about lower passenger loads; I *was* surprised that NW -- as much as I love them -- can let C-seats go empty for months on a summertime DTW-CDG run (little doubt there's some DTW-based plat out there who tried, and failed, to get those seats as a WP award...), only to give them away (in lieu of $) as compensation to volunteers off an overbooked DTW-LGW! In addition, it's quite likely that there were plats and golds traveling in Y to CDG thanks to NW's lack of an international u/g policy. I can only imagine how they would feel (not very good) knowing that the empty C seats were going to these volunteers instead of op-upgrades. It did not seem that customer loyalty was taken into account when handling this situation.
July 1, 2003: NW 1924 DTW-JFK 9.10p-10.59p
Typical for offpeak NW flights between the hubs and the NY area, the load was extremely light, 50% or maybe not even that. I preboarded along with the 3 other F pax. As I walked down the dusty jetway (which could use a vacuuming, as Spinzel wraps were scattered here and there) toward the short, tiny DC9-30 looking straight out of the 1960s, I pondered the many joys of flying NW. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I am beginning to take NW's terrific on-time performance for granted, but we left the gate... on time. We took off toward the south from a runway that at the time was being used solely by Airlink and DC9's, and the flying time was announced to be 1 h 8 m. Since it became dark, I could not follow the exact flight path east, but I do know that toward its end we were descending over central Brooklyn toward the south, and the approach took us way out over the Atlantic before the left turn onto the final to JFK was made. This resulted in the flying time being a few minutes longer than announced, but nevertheless we (sure thing) made it to the gate at JFK on time. Taxying around JFK after landing is always interesting, as Terminal 4 (where NW is based) is quite a distance from the runways and a lot of foreign a/c's can be seen. The BA terminal was a bustling hub of activity, with BA 747s and 777s lined up practically at every gate. One gate was occupied by a CX A340, which I inferred to be the JFK-YVR-HKG flight. Terminal 4 itself was fairly quiet. Biman Bangladesh's DC10-30 was getting ready for its nightly run to BRU with continuation to Dhaka, and when I entered the terminal I heard the final boarding call for KL's 11.05pm flight to AMS. Due to obstructed view I could not tell whether the a/c was a 743 or 744, but it definitely had the "KLM Asia" livery.
JFK: 7/5
Earlier in the day T4 is definitely a bit more interesting. A/c sightings included 2 Aer Lingus airbuses with their cute shamrock livery (including minishamrocks on the wingtips); one was an A330 reg. EI-DUB (airport codes seem to comprise the last 3 letters of registration for most Aer Lingus a/c's I have seen). The Biman DC10 was also there, as was KLM's MD-11 reg. PH-KCH serving the evening's KL642 to AMS. This I thought a bit unusual since much of the time JFK-AMS is served by 747's. The other afternoon denizens of T4 (PIA and Air India 747's) were at their usual gates.
July 5, 2003: NW 735 JFK-MSP 5.40p-7.50p
Boarding began around 5.25 as the load was ~ 50%, as usual for this sector. I was the 2nd person to board, preceded by an off-duty female NW f/a who was also in F. Settling into 1A (which this time I obtained "manually" by calling NW at 12.01 on the 4th... incredibly, EUA did not work for me at all, first time in a long time that this happened), I was pleased to see that 1B remained vacant for me to spread my papers all over it (not that I recall any regulation to "not use adjacent empty seats for stowage)! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Some reshuffling of pax took place after boarding, with at least 2 pax coming up from Y to take 1C and D. I may be way too nosy, but one of them held a boarding pass which said "10A" (no, I did not see that person's name, nor did I want to). A last-minute u/g due to a failed EUA? Or something else entirely? I wonder. Regardless, F was half-empty when we departed (right on time).
The a/c was a DC9 -- not that I have ever seen any other equipment on NW domestic flights in or out of JFK! Taxying around JFK in daylight is much more fun than at night. 2 El Al a/c's were parked some distance away from the gates this evening, one a 744 and the other a 777. This contrasts with the usual (one 744 only). Higher summertime NYC/TLV loads? Who knows. My favorite moment during taxi was the close view of 2 744s off my (left) side of the a/c. These, like the El Als, were parked a little ways away from the gates. One was SQ's (reg. 9V-SPO), and right next to it sat NW's N662US. If only I could be onboard one of those big birds instead of my DC9, and heading to Asia instead of MSP & SEA... Alas, that will have to wait for another time.
Takeoff was toward the northwest, with a sharp left turn almost immediately, then a loop out over the south shore of Long Island and another 180-degree turn taking us over Nassau County, L.I., the Long Island Sound and turning west gradually while climbing over the mainland. This appears to be a standard departure procedure for NW's westbound traffic from JFK, and very seldom varies. JFK-MSP is one of those odd segments where NW serves a hot meal in F but nothing except beverages in Y. The F choices were a "beef ragu with great northern beans" (another throwback to the menus of 2-3 years ago, it seems) or a chicken breast dish with some type of sweet sauce and steamed vegetables. Opting for the latter, I was pleased to see that NW's F meal service on relatively short flights (actual flying time was just 2 h 28 m) remains top-notch -- especially when compared to CO's outrageous lukewarm slop on its much longer SEA-IAH sector. There was a choice of bread (!) -- potato rolls vs French rolls, offered with the dinner. The rolls were warm and were served with real Land-O-Lakes butter, not margarine (sure, NW is from Minnesota where the stuff is made, but still). The salad was acceptable, the chicken itself was OK, and the exact same type of chocolate cake that I saw on SEA-DTW on 7/1 was served here as well. Sure thing, it seemed tastier, because there never was ice cream on JFK-MSP in the first place, in contrast to the west coast flights. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
The flight was perfectly smooth except for very light chop over Lake Michigan and as we passed south of Green Bay. We flew right over Minneapolis on descent (great view) and a bit past the city toward the west, before turning 180 deg. to join the approach queue into MSP where we landed toward the southeast. Despite the somewhat complicated maneuvers at the beginning, we arrived about 20 min early. Nice job, NW!
MSP, 7/5
The arrival gate was C20 and from there it is quite a distance to F12 clear across the terminal, which is where the SEA flight was to depart. As usual, I walked through the mostly deserted airport, stopping at a S'bux and the excellent (I think) Chinese take-out just off Northstar Crossing, where I loaded up on goodies to take onto the MSP-SEA flight. Discontinuing the F-only cold snack on the "late night" MSP-SEA sectors was in my opinion a terrible idea, but who am I to complain? And, this may sound ridiculous, but I preferred the "color" concourse system of MSP in the old days to the "letter" system of today. Overall, MSP remains the best US hub I've ever traveled through -- and I've been more or less a regular through there since 1996.
July 5, 2003: NW 165 MSP-SEA 9.26p-11.04p
It was not difficult to see where the SEA flight was, even without noting the gate numbers; MSP-SEA always enjoys a nearly full load, and the gate area was quite crowded. At ~ 8.50, preboarding began. Boarding was through the 2L door. The F cabin turned out to be completely full, and during boarding a "we do have a full flight today" announcement was heard (not sure if this necessarily means 100% full or not). Many of the F pax this evening were apparently companion u/g's. Overall I am convinced that NW has many more elites and elite companions on the MSP/DTW-SEA flights than it has F seats for. The a/c was a 753. Pushback was on-time. Takeoff was toward the east followed by a turn toward the west-northwest, passing north of the Twin Cities. A few minutes into the bev service, fairly robust turbulence began. The captain came on and announced that it was due to some bad weather to the north of the flightpath, over Bismarck, ND, and that it would last < 30 min (turned out to be true). I could see people holding on to the overhead bins while walking through the aisle, and f/a's were asked to suspend the service for the time being. (Which is the right thing to do, although this sure made me recall the f/a's valiantly serving lunch to the entire Y cabin in much worse turbulence on my CI HKG-SIN flight last month!) The flying time was announced to be 3 h 8 m with a marginally early arrival into SEA, which turned out to be true as well. Food was limited to snacks and bananas served from a basket by f/a's walking the aisle in F. I do think that given the rather long westbound flights NW should at least provide some audio IFE (for which the 753s are equipped). The remainder of the flight all the way into SEA was uneventful and due to continuing good weather at SEA landing was, as expected, toward the north, followed by a longish taxi toward NW's digs at the opposite end of the airport.
All in all, a totally average and utterly typical travel experience for SEA-NYC on NW.
Best regards to all,
SEA_lurker
While I can't emphasize enough that the many professionally done trip reports on ft have provided hours of enjoyable reading for this lurker, my goal is not to compete with their quality and finesse, but rather to present a brief and pragmatic assessment of the flying experience that might be of use to someone utilizing the same carrier or airports.
SEA on 7/1: no lines, and a tale of 2 NW 742s
Fear-stricken by TV news reports about the endless security lines and lack of TSA personnel at SEA, I printed by boarding pass for 1A at nwa.com and headed to the airport unusually early (for me). Imagine my surprise this late Tuesday morning when at 11.45 am downstairs at the main terminal, at the security checkpoint screening all S-gates-bound pax, there was... no line at all! No "pre-line" for photo-id check upstairs, and no activity whatsoever in most of the checkpoint. I briefly noticed that construction of the new subway at SEA, the one that will soon ferry pax to main-terminal gates, is nearly over, and train test runs are underway. In any case, I promptly boarded the old subway (the shuttle between the main terminal and the S gates).
Upon emerging upstairs in the south terminal, I immediately noticed not 1, but 2 NW 747-200s parked practically side by side at the gates nearest the Worldclub. Other SEA-based NW ff's will see this is somewhat strange, because we normally have just one NW 742, the one to/from NRT. I quickly determined that the NW flight 007 to NRT that day was operated by 742 reg. N638US. Ship 6638 obviously has not been repainted for some time, and this was starkly obvious because it was parked next to the other NW 742 (did not get #), which sported a shiny, new coat of paint, albeit in the traditional (old) NW livery. (I am not sure if the 742s will be repainted in new livery; I hope not, because I just can't stand the new livery.) This other, recently repainted 742 turned out to be the HNL flight. Whether this was a one-time replacement of the HNL-bound D10, or an adjustment due to higher volumes, I do not know. On the other side of the terminal, as usual, NW's AMS-bound D10 could be seen.
July 1, 2003: NW 212 SEA-DTW 12.45p-8.00p
Preboarding of the 753 began roughly at 12.15, shortly after the adjacent gate door where the 12.10 MSP departure boarded earlier had been shut. By the # of pax at the gate I would estimate a ~ 80% load for the DTW flight, although F was completely full. Boarding was, as usual for NW 757's, through the 2L door, which I like -- there is no parade of Y-pax through the F cabin, no excuse to not serve predeparture bevs, and most importantly there is the special feeling one gets when entering an aircraft and turning left. I had never been on a 753 prior, and was slightly disappointed to observe that the seat pitch and the seats themselves (cloth, dark blue color scheme, no "wings" like on CO) looked exactly as they do on the dated 755s, even though the 753s are fairly new. The 753 of course is quite a bit longer than the 757-200 (755), resulting in a few more rows of Y (and a miserable u/g ratio). In F, the cabin difference is in row 1, where one finds 4 seats, not the 2 in the 755, for a total of 24 (vs. 22) F seats. Strangely, seats 1A and B are superior to 1C and D in one regard: there is an extra space at the bottom of the bulkhead wall (marked with a little "no stowage" sticker, though spacious enough to allow illicit stowage of small items, which I gladly took advantage of). There is absolutely no wall cutout for extra legroom in front of 1C and D (I checked). Now, making this info public probably means that I won't be able to get 1A on NW 753s anytime soon, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif but that is quite all right: after a recent conversation with a WP supervisor in which I was told that an overseas mileage run to bump myself to gold would be a good idea (!) and from which I concluded that the ff program is all downhill from here for us lowly Silvers, it's not as if I'm too likely to ride in F in the future at all!
Predeparture drinks were offered. Lately NW has been very good about this, and in fact they were offered on all 4 segments on this trip. We pushed back right on time, taxied for a very little while and took off toward the north. Takeoffs toward the north are normal at SEA whenever high-pressure weather systems are over the area (typically during the summer, and during any dry spells in the winter). There was a substantial amount of nasty lateral chop while climbing through the very low altitudes, indicative of a bit of crosswind. Perhaps due to the daytime takeoff, we did not do a "question mark" over Elliott Bay and Puget Sound (a possible noise-abatement maneuver frequently done after northbound takeoffs of NW's 1 AM SEA-MSP flight), but rather continued to the north over the city and turned east shortly thereafter. Soon, fabulous views of the Cascade Mountains were to be had, as skies remained just partly cloudy. The Cascades, with much of the winter snow still in evidence in places, look particularly lovely this time of year. I could see many brilliant-blue glacial lakes surrounded by snow, and I have no doubt they would make for great hiking destinations -- but I digress. Our flying time to DTW was a standard 3 h 38 m.
The lunch choice in F was ravioli vs. chicken. Due to a recent unpleasant experience with ravioli on JFK-MSP (not this trip), and even though SEA-based catering might be higher-quality than JFK-based catering, I opted for the chicken by default, also ordering a glass of the Sebastiani (?) Calif. chardonnay. While paper menus on domestic NW are gone for good, the chicken tasted like a "blast from the (paper menu days of the) past;" this was the "chicken breast with corn/tortilla pie" entree that I remember was served regularly between MSP and the east coast in 2000/2001. The food was served all at once. I lamented the untimely passing of the shrimp appetizer (replaced these days by something artichoke-based and inedible-looking) and the ice cream (replaced by a very plain chocolate cake slice). Oh well!
The flight was uneventful and the skies remained mostly clear as we cruised a bit south of the Twin Cities. I could clearly see the Minneapolis skyline, St. Paul, and MSP itself, a bit to the left of our flight path. We began to pick up a tiny bit of light chop as we proceeded eastward, over the lake, and toward DTW. Our final approach into DTW was parallel to that of another NW a/c (looked like a 320, couldn't be sure due to distance) which ended up landing just seconds before we landed on the parallel runway. Gate arrival was on-time. All in all, a nearly perfect (though food could be better), on-time flight; which describes also most of my domestic NW travel experience over the past 3 years.
DTW on 7/1: Problem booking WBC to Europe in the summer? Try "volunteering!"
I slowly made my way to the north end of the WorldGateway. I could have taken the train or at least used the moving walkways, but when time allows I strongly prefer walking the whole way. DTW in the evening has a rather low-key atmosphere to it; the Asian and west coast flights are long-gone, and the only measure of excitement is provided by the crowds of tourists heading to Europe. They could be seen along the west side of the terminal, waiting to board AMS-, LGW-, and CDG-bound D10s.
Since my boarding gate for the JFK segment was in this area, I overheard a repeated announcement to the following effect: "Ladies and gentlemen, our LGW flight tonight is overbooked. Volunteers will be accommodated in business class on our CDG flight and put on a connection to LGW arriving at 12.30 pm London time tomorrow." I could hardly believe my ears. No, I was not surprised that a midweek transatlantic flight was overbooked despite all the (unfounded) whining about lower passenger loads; I *was* surprised that NW -- as much as I love them -- can let C-seats go empty for months on a summertime DTW-CDG run (little doubt there's some DTW-based plat out there who tried, and failed, to get those seats as a WP award...), only to give them away (in lieu of $) as compensation to volunteers off an overbooked DTW-LGW! In addition, it's quite likely that there were plats and golds traveling in Y to CDG thanks to NW's lack of an international u/g policy. I can only imagine how they would feel (not very good) knowing that the empty C seats were going to these volunteers instead of op-upgrades. It did not seem that customer loyalty was taken into account when handling this situation.
July 1, 2003: NW 1924 DTW-JFK 9.10p-10.59p
Typical for offpeak NW flights between the hubs and the NY area, the load was extremely light, 50% or maybe not even that. I preboarded along with the 3 other F pax. As I walked down the dusty jetway (which could use a vacuuming, as Spinzel wraps were scattered here and there) toward the short, tiny DC9-30 looking straight out of the 1960s, I pondered the many joys of flying NW. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I am beginning to take NW's terrific on-time performance for granted, but we left the gate... on time. We took off toward the south from a runway that at the time was being used solely by Airlink and DC9's, and the flying time was announced to be 1 h 8 m. Since it became dark, I could not follow the exact flight path east, but I do know that toward its end we were descending over central Brooklyn toward the south, and the approach took us way out over the Atlantic before the left turn onto the final to JFK was made. This resulted in the flying time being a few minutes longer than announced, but nevertheless we (sure thing) made it to the gate at JFK on time. Taxying around JFK after landing is always interesting, as Terminal 4 (where NW is based) is quite a distance from the runways and a lot of foreign a/c's can be seen. The BA terminal was a bustling hub of activity, with BA 747s and 777s lined up practically at every gate. One gate was occupied by a CX A340, which I inferred to be the JFK-YVR-HKG flight. Terminal 4 itself was fairly quiet. Biman Bangladesh's DC10-30 was getting ready for its nightly run to BRU with continuation to Dhaka, and when I entered the terminal I heard the final boarding call for KL's 11.05pm flight to AMS. Due to obstructed view I could not tell whether the a/c was a 743 or 744, but it definitely had the "KLM Asia" livery.
JFK: 7/5
Earlier in the day T4 is definitely a bit more interesting. A/c sightings included 2 Aer Lingus airbuses with their cute shamrock livery (including minishamrocks on the wingtips); one was an A330 reg. EI-DUB (airport codes seem to comprise the last 3 letters of registration for most Aer Lingus a/c's I have seen). The Biman DC10 was also there, as was KLM's MD-11 reg. PH-KCH serving the evening's KL642 to AMS. This I thought a bit unusual since much of the time JFK-AMS is served by 747's. The other afternoon denizens of T4 (PIA and Air India 747's) were at their usual gates.
July 5, 2003: NW 735 JFK-MSP 5.40p-7.50p
Boarding began around 5.25 as the load was ~ 50%, as usual for this sector. I was the 2nd person to board, preceded by an off-duty female NW f/a who was also in F. Settling into 1A (which this time I obtained "manually" by calling NW at 12.01 on the 4th... incredibly, EUA did not work for me at all, first time in a long time that this happened), I was pleased to see that 1B remained vacant for me to spread my papers all over it (not that I recall any regulation to "not use adjacent empty seats for stowage)! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Some reshuffling of pax took place after boarding, with at least 2 pax coming up from Y to take 1C and D. I may be way too nosy, but one of them held a boarding pass which said "10A" (no, I did not see that person's name, nor did I want to). A last-minute u/g due to a failed EUA? Or something else entirely? I wonder. Regardless, F was half-empty when we departed (right on time).
The a/c was a DC9 -- not that I have ever seen any other equipment on NW domestic flights in or out of JFK! Taxying around JFK in daylight is much more fun than at night. 2 El Al a/c's were parked some distance away from the gates this evening, one a 744 and the other a 777. This contrasts with the usual (one 744 only). Higher summertime NYC/TLV loads? Who knows. My favorite moment during taxi was the close view of 2 744s off my (left) side of the a/c. These, like the El Als, were parked a little ways away from the gates. One was SQ's (reg. 9V-SPO), and right next to it sat NW's N662US. If only I could be onboard one of those big birds instead of my DC9, and heading to Asia instead of MSP & SEA... Alas, that will have to wait for another time.
Takeoff was toward the northwest, with a sharp left turn almost immediately, then a loop out over the south shore of Long Island and another 180-degree turn taking us over Nassau County, L.I., the Long Island Sound and turning west gradually while climbing over the mainland. This appears to be a standard departure procedure for NW's westbound traffic from JFK, and very seldom varies. JFK-MSP is one of those odd segments where NW serves a hot meal in F but nothing except beverages in Y. The F choices were a "beef ragu with great northern beans" (another throwback to the menus of 2-3 years ago, it seems) or a chicken breast dish with some type of sweet sauce and steamed vegetables. Opting for the latter, I was pleased to see that NW's F meal service on relatively short flights (actual flying time was just 2 h 28 m) remains top-notch -- especially when compared to CO's outrageous lukewarm slop on its much longer SEA-IAH sector. There was a choice of bread (!) -- potato rolls vs French rolls, offered with the dinner. The rolls were warm and were served with real Land-O-Lakes butter, not margarine (sure, NW is from Minnesota where the stuff is made, but still). The salad was acceptable, the chicken itself was OK, and the exact same type of chocolate cake that I saw on SEA-DTW on 7/1 was served here as well. Sure thing, it seemed tastier, because there never was ice cream on JFK-MSP in the first place, in contrast to the west coast flights. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
The flight was perfectly smooth except for very light chop over Lake Michigan and as we passed south of Green Bay. We flew right over Minneapolis on descent (great view) and a bit past the city toward the west, before turning 180 deg. to join the approach queue into MSP where we landed toward the southeast. Despite the somewhat complicated maneuvers at the beginning, we arrived about 20 min early. Nice job, NW!
MSP, 7/5
The arrival gate was C20 and from there it is quite a distance to F12 clear across the terminal, which is where the SEA flight was to depart. As usual, I walked through the mostly deserted airport, stopping at a S'bux and the excellent (I think) Chinese take-out just off Northstar Crossing, where I loaded up on goodies to take onto the MSP-SEA flight. Discontinuing the F-only cold snack on the "late night" MSP-SEA sectors was in my opinion a terrible idea, but who am I to complain? And, this may sound ridiculous, but I preferred the "color" concourse system of MSP in the old days to the "letter" system of today. Overall, MSP remains the best US hub I've ever traveled through -- and I've been more or less a regular through there since 1996.
July 5, 2003: NW 165 MSP-SEA 9.26p-11.04p
It was not difficult to see where the SEA flight was, even without noting the gate numbers; MSP-SEA always enjoys a nearly full load, and the gate area was quite crowded. At ~ 8.50, preboarding began. Boarding was through the 2L door. The F cabin turned out to be completely full, and during boarding a "we do have a full flight today" announcement was heard (not sure if this necessarily means 100% full or not). Many of the F pax this evening were apparently companion u/g's. Overall I am convinced that NW has many more elites and elite companions on the MSP/DTW-SEA flights than it has F seats for. The a/c was a 753. Pushback was on-time. Takeoff was toward the east followed by a turn toward the west-northwest, passing north of the Twin Cities. A few minutes into the bev service, fairly robust turbulence began. The captain came on and announced that it was due to some bad weather to the north of the flightpath, over Bismarck, ND, and that it would last < 30 min (turned out to be true). I could see people holding on to the overhead bins while walking through the aisle, and f/a's were asked to suspend the service for the time being. (Which is the right thing to do, although this sure made me recall the f/a's valiantly serving lunch to the entire Y cabin in much worse turbulence on my CI HKG-SIN flight last month!) The flying time was announced to be 3 h 8 m with a marginally early arrival into SEA, which turned out to be true as well. Food was limited to snacks and bananas served from a basket by f/a's walking the aisle in F. I do think that given the rather long westbound flights NW should at least provide some audio IFE (for which the 753s are equipped). The remainder of the flight all the way into SEA was uneventful and due to continuing good weather at SEA landing was, as expected, toward the north, followed by a longish taxi toward NW's digs at the opposite end of the airport.
All in all, a totally average and utterly typical travel experience for SEA-NYC on NW.
Best regards to all,
SEA_lurker