Good point, on several random dates in May, I'm seeing 4+ seats available in the F bucket on just about every flight CLE-LAX, which would be of comparable length to a DTW/MSP-LAX run.

A colleague of mine who often travels out to LA (Silver, rarely gets the EUA on EWR transcons) has found a good solution: He takes the 2:35 733 to CLE (325), and connects to the 757 (BF) to LAX leaving at 5:30 or so. He has cleared on 3 out of 4 trips on both flights, not including 2 trips where he used 10k for upgrades.

Northwest does not operate any true transcons, especially when you consider the excellent FC service on the CO flights. When you can get a flight with the BF seats, the experience is very similar to a real BusinessFirst flight, minus a few minor details. As far as I know, there are no domestic NW flights where the level of service is nearly equal to that of WBC, as CO's transcons are to BF.

As such, I still maintain my position that the inflight product of Continental is superior to that of Northwest.

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Dave