My family (wife and 3 1/2 yr old daughter) and I have NW award tix DTW-LAX on 9/30, returning 10/14. I know, I'm going to catch H-E-double-hockeysticks here for using miles on a domestic Y flight, but 75K miles from my wife's account seems reasonable compared to the $900+ for the three of us if we pay cash. More to spend with the Mouse.

Given the ongoing CHAOS delays, I'm getting more nervous about staying on NW metal. Thought things would have been settled easily by the end of Sept, but no so sure now.

I've done some research, but haven't convinced myself to pull the trigger. As of right now I could switch the tix over to CO DTW-IAH-ONT for the $75 redeposit fee (can't seem to change to another airline directly online so have to cancel and rebook or pay $150 to deal with an agent) and an extra $15 in segment fees. Departure from DTW goes from a reasonable 9:30 AM to an ugly 6:00 AM and we'd get back at 10:30 PM instead of 7:30ish, but at least we'd get "fed" on all 4 segments.

Rental car at ONT goes from the $120/wk I have for a Thrifty full-size to $136/wk for full or $170/wk for a minivan, so that's not bad. An extra $75 for the flight changes and $40-125 to change the rental car... call it $200.

Not so concerned about the return flight, if it's gets delayed a few hours or a day, oh well, but getting started on the vacation, that's a different thing altogether.

Anyone want to guess at the odds of our Saturday AM flights being messed with by the FAs - assuming the courts have even given them the go ahead to take action by 9/30?

Never thought I'd have to deal with this when I booked these flight 6 months ago.