Are you sure NW has your contact information and you are signed up for alerts? NW have been very good at notifying me about delays on early morning flights - as early as the night before. I get a text message two hours before the flight along with e-mail to both my personal and work addresses. I dont' have to sign up for this every time - it is in my nwa.com profile and works great (except for EUA status - those are always late and often wrong).