Background: Around April I noticed the triple EQM promotion being offered by NorthWest on M class or higher fares. I had no real intention of maintaining th NWA Platinum status I had received through a status match to my UA 1k, however I noticed a mileage run that was posted where I could get a trip to SIN upgraded for WBC for about $1800. In the end, I ended up buying a ticket from DFW-HNL-SIN-MSP for about $1780 AI with upgrades confirmed the whole way. Though it was a trip I never planned on doing this year, I figured the to receive at least 66k EQM towards 2010 status, NWA Platinum would be easily achieved along with a nice chance to earn some miles to transfer to Delta and I could try out the NWA World Business Class product and compare it to United Business Class.
I got up at 5:55 to begin this mileage run. I had booked the Country Inn and Suites DFW on Priceline for about $40 for the night which in hindsight I regret. First off, I arrived into DFW on United at half past midnight and got stuck paying $23 for a taxi to the hotel since the shuttle had stopped for the night. The room was clean and on par with an older Hampton Inn, additionally there was a decent looking free breakfast spread. Personally, I would have preferred to stay at the Westin for $20 more, but Priceline doesn’t always work as planned. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I guess the best mental image I can give is a nicer hotel where a truck driver would take a "nap" with a hooker.
Check-in at DFW was a bit confusing. I went to wait in the Delta Platinum Medallion line, since it looked like Delta and NWA had combined the check-in counters. After about a 5 minute wait I walked to the counter, to have the agent tell me I had to check-in at the other end of the counter with the NWA staff, labeled as Delta staff. However, despite the confusion the agent guided me over to the other counter and carried my bag along with apologizing about the signage. In the end, it was another minute in line waiting, but I’ll give any airline employee that carrys my bag over to another counter a lot of credit for resolving what could otherwise be an annoyance and not giving me some garbage.
Security was less than two minutes. There were parents and their two kids ahead of me, however the father said to go ahead since it would take them a few minutes to get ready.
I walked over to the E10 Crown Room. Very nice lounge with what looks to be newer furniture and carpeting along with some pastries and fruit for breakfast. Definitely not the SQ Terminal 3 lounge, but nice décor and good views too, especially if you’re an AA MD-80 fan. Also, a decent alcohol spread, but I skipped it since it would be a long day.
NWA Flight 2052: Operated by Pinnacle
DFW-MSP
Seat 2A
Embraer E-175
My flight from DFW-MSP was rather loaded in coach and full in first. I would guess there was a 90% load. The flight was a cold breakfast flight and I was rather impressed with the amount of food for a breakfast flight. I stuck with a few cups of coffee and water. The food as a whole was good and I was impressed with the quality of the fruit, nice ripe strawberries. As a whole, service was excellent with my coffee cup not sitting empty for more than 2 minutes and the tray table was removed as soon as I was done.
Arrival into MSP was on time and we arrived into the F concourse. I walked over to the C concourse WorldClub since it has been recently rehabbed and has some excellent views. I spent about an hour at doing some work and had an apple. I've been to this lounge three times in May so far and am a huge fan of it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to book a confirmed upgrade on the non-stop MSP-HNL A330, so I went with the NWA flight 632 via LAX.
NWA Flight 623
MSP-LAX
Seat 1A
Boeing 757-300
Since this was my first ever 757-300 flight I was excited to finally get to try out this beautiful plane. My impression was it's long and just like 757-200 besides that. I wanted to walk the length of the plane couldn't make it down the aisle the whole way cause there was always someone else in my way. The load factor was about 85-90% I would guess and boarding and departure was on time.
I skipped the pre-departure beverage and had a Pepsi (can't wait for Coke to arrive) after takeoff. After realizing that the red wine being served with was healthier than Pepsi, I switched to the wine. As a whole, I liked the big wine glasses on NWA and found the wine to be quite tolerable. Definitely a step up from Charles Shaw, but if they were to sell Charles Shaw for $6 a bottle in coach I'd buy it cause it tastes better than the usual coach crap. n For lunch I went with a chicken salad as pictured below. My impression was the chicken was decent and despite there being a variety of vegetables, there was hardly any lettuce. Also, the desert was an orange/chocolate chip cookie which I had a few chunks out of before deciding it wasn't any good.
I had some water after lunch and had a chance to plow through a few Sopranos episodes. The snack basket was passed around about an hour before landing so I had a banana. In the end it was a flight with average service that arrived on time. Throughout the flight there was an idiot and his wife in seats 2A and 2B describing to his wife what the different planes at the airport were. Some sitings of his were...
-The Singapore Airlines 737-200 (really a 747-400)
-The Northwest Airlines 757 going to Tokyo, also noting it was the same size as the plane we were on (really a A330)
-The ANA 777 in the Star Alliance livery. He pointed out to his wife that NWA is in Star Alliance.
I was half tempted to point out his mistakes, but realized there is no reason to interact with a crazy person.
LAX NWA WorldClub
As soon as I landed at LAX I had to make a quick decision on whether or not I would have enough time to pay a visit to In-n-Out Burger. Unfortunately with 1:30 until my departure, I decided to be realistic and skip it this time. Now I'll have to wait until July at the earliest. I promptly made my way to the LAX NWA WorldClub in Terminal 3 and proceeded to catch up on some work emails and enjoy a few beers. The lounge was the older NWA WorldClub decor and it was rather packed because the NWA LAX-NRT flight was taking a 3 hour delay. Food was cheese, crackers, vegetables for dipping, and dips. Alcohol was the standard NWA open bar. I made it to my gate about 30 minutes before boarding.
NWA Flight 623
MSP-LAX
Seat 1A
Boeing 757-300
Boarding was on time and orderly. I especially liked bypassing the line of 150+ people waiting to board with the cattle class. Immediately upon taking my seat, one of the excellent FAs asked me if I would like a Mai Tai for a pre-departure beverage. Of course I obliged.
I had the great pleasure of continuing to listen to the excellent aviation observations of the couple from the previous flight in 2A and 2B while trying not to burst out laughing. The flight had maybe 80% of the seats full in F, and I had an empty one next to me. Right on time we pushed back and followed the NWA LAX-NRT flight to the runway and were in the air with less than 5 minutes of waiting. The seatbelt sign was turned off quickly after takeoff and service began right away. I decided to continue on with another Mai Tai. I was amazed by the fact that there were Mai Tais and one was offered pre-departure without even asking. It's obvious I have become too used to having to pull teeth on United HNL flights for pre-departure champagne and Mai Tais once in the air.
After a round of the snack basket and another round of drinks dinner was served. I had a chicken dish with paella and vegetables. The chicken had a layer of skin on covered with seasoning so with the fatty parts pealed away it wasn't very flavorful but not bad. The paella was a bit dry, but good nonetheless and the asparagus was excellent. Throughout the dinner service red wine was continually flowing without having to wait more than a minute for the FA to spot my glass was empty.
I spent the next few hours doing some work and watching more Sopranos episodes. It was excellent having the laptop battery life to run non-stop from LAX-HNL and still have some left.
The flight attendants were checking every 20 minutes if I needed anything to drink, so after turning them down a few times, I asked for another Mai Tai, just to make sure I got my daily intake of pineapple. I hate being a bad guy and denying someone the opportunity to provide excellent service, so I took one for the team this time. The snack basket was handed around about an hour before landing followed by some more Mai Tais.
Honolulu and the Princess Krapulani
Landing was on time in HNL and my bag was on the belt within 25 minutes of arrival. I promptly made my way to the Robert's Hawaiian Shuttle to Waikiki Hotels. The round trip ticket was $15 and it took about an hour to get to the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani so I tethered my BlackBerry to my laptop and surfed the internet the whole way and time flew.
Upon arrival, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani was the same dump I use as a base line for what defines a homeless shelter. However, for $87 as opposed to $155 for the Sheraton Waikiki, the only reason I stayed there is because I'm just plain cheap and wanted the SPG stay credit. At check-in the agent tried to give me a room in the old tower and I said that would be unacceptable since there were major mold problems in my room last time I stayed there. She promptly offered me a room in the newer (1970s vintage) tower on the top floor. I said fine, and proceeded through the seventh layer of hell to my room. The mildew smell was faint, the hallways were hotter than hell, and the elevator seemed to be lacking any air conditioning. I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent looking bed and LCD TV, but my joy was soon taken away when I examined one of the pillow cases and noticed there were mold stains on it, 1 pillow down, 3 to go. Instead of complaining to the front desk this time, I've taken pictures which I will send to the corporate headquarters. Though I forgot to take pictures of the room, I'm including two very nice ones of clean areas of the room. If you would like a mental image, simply picture a king sized bed in an alley, and that's the Princess Kaiulani.
Mold Stains
Calcium Deposits
I unfortunately had to do a load of laundry since I had been on the road for 5 days before this excursion, so did that as quickly as possible and went for a walk around Waikiki beach until 10:00 when I grabbed a small dinner and a few beers at some burger restaurant. Despite being a few minutes early for happy hour, the bartender only charged me the happy hour prices which was great. I made it back to the hotel around 11 and after watching some TV I slept til about 7am. Since I would only have a few hours in Waikiki, I headed to the beach right away where I swam for an hour and went back to my hotel to make a call to schedule a shuttle pickup at 11:15. I then headed over to the pool at the Sheraton Waikiki and using an old keycard from the Royal Hawaiian, got towels and admission to the nice new pool shared by the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki. I hung out there for about an hour and a half and indulged on the water slide numerous times. I got back to the Princess Kiulani around 10:15, packed up, bought some Hawaii souvenirs at the ABC Store, and ate a snack at Taco Bell. I then headed over to the hotel where I checked out and voiced my displeasure over the condition of the hotel, I avoided speaking to the general manager this time since I felt guilty about telling the nice fellow what a dump the hotel was to his face. The shuttle ride to the airport took about 45 minutes and with internet access the whole way, the ride flew by.