I'm CO Gold Elite and I will fly NW when they have a lower fare than CO as I get elite miles, upgrades, priority check-in, etc. Give both carriers credit for making it seamless for a FF to fly on either carrier with almost all benefits. I'm not a NW basher, and I fully acknowledge NW is way ahead on CO on their website (being able to book awards online and check-in or even change tickets online is GREAT), their MSP hub is modern and efficient, and they seem to be pretty reliable.

Having said that, First Class on NW seems to be a small step up from Economy Plus on United. The legroom is pretty paltry for first class, and the seats they use just suck. My guess is pitch between seats is 35" and the lowback cloth seats they use are upgrades of what CO uses in Y. The seats are so thin that one can feel when the passenger behind them takes out a magazine or accidently kicks the seat. The food service (okay they still have food which is better than say AA) is pretty bad. On flights from DEN-MSP (about 2 hours) we were served a sandwich (no choice) with a side salad and some cake and it was very unappetizing (the sandwiches had enough way too much mayonaisse on them). Needless to say therew were no hot towels (even HP has hot towels) and no table linens as part of the inflight service.

I did notice, that NW has more seats in coach and even many Silver Elites on NW are upgraded (on CO I was lucky to get upgraded 50% of the time when Silver), but I think the airline has really devalued their F product to the point of being far below the competition.

I'm interested to hear about other Flyertalk members opinions or experiences?