I'll jump on the bandwagon just for a moment. I'm not as seasoned as many here, especially those who've posted before me, but your candor, insight and perspective made the NW FF program really top notch for me. I fly primarily for work and we're a small non-profit organization, so getting the most bang for your buck, so to speak, has always been important to me. Whether it was being tipped off on a new promo or publicly praising the treatment a gate agent gave us, I've thoroughly enjoyed checking in and being just a small part of this dialogue.

There is one story I will share and it is the reason why when it came time to decide about who to fly for work, NW was atop my list.

In 2002 I was flying home for the holidays. I had a ticket from ORF-BWI on US, then BWI-DTW-IND. This was much cheaper than booking ORF-IND and a college student does what they have to do.

That afternoon, my airport shuttle arrived late and got me to the airport long after my ORF-BWI flight had boarded. Because my BWI-IND trip was on NW, I visited the desk there just to see if there was anything that could be done. Naturally, US just told me they could only get me to BWI, and nothing else.

The gentleman at the counter listened to my story and said he'd see what he could do. He went over and had US endorse my ORF-BWI ticket over to NW and told me to meet him upstairs. The flight was full (just before Christmas) so all I could do was wait and hope that someone didn't show. The flight began to board and I was thinking I might be hitching a ride home when instead of paging me, the gentleman came up to me and handed me a boarding pass.

"Merry Christmas. I looked and saw you've flown 75,000 miles with us and that's not easy for a college kid. Enjoy."

Of course I had no status and lots of those miles probably came from any kind of promotion NW sent my way back then. But that flight, and my recollection of what that agent did for me, will be my foremost memory of The Red Tail.