I just read where NW is planning to commence another new fee on 31 Sept.

Passengers who intend to actually board the airplanes they are ticketed for will pay an additional $100 per segment handling fee. This covers the fuel, maintenace and labor costs associated with actual aircraft operations.

Airline personnel have repeatedly pointed out that use of the Internet, including general browsing and search engines, can provide seamless and entirely virtual visits to anywhere someone might want to fly on NW's network. Officials promised that new NW web pages will soon be in place, so that after booking a trip, you can instantly have a page of fresh links e-tranporting you to the place you were ticketed for.

One employee's 14 year old daughter recently completed such a journey recently in her local library, giving NW officials inspiration for the latest move.