CO vs NW
 

I just began flying after a long hiatus. I have 38K Conintental miles saved.

I am about to fly Northwest. Am I better off with Continental's program, or shoul I open a Northwest account? I notice that qualification for elite is easier on Northwest.

If you don't have elite status, the choice would be between:

*CO coach
+possible food/snack
+in-flight audio/video (headsets are $5 or bum one off a Flyertalker http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif)
-super-tight legroom
-poorer seat choice/online check-in clunkier

*NW coach
-no food (except some DTW/MEM-West Coast)
-no audio/video
+slightly more legroom
+better seat choice/ better online check-in

Hi rsjuden! Welcome to FT!

Well, elite qualification will depend a lot on your travel patterns:

-- do you fly a lot of short segments or longer international flights?

-- do you fly on cheap cheap fares, higher fares, or a mix?

--how you plan to use your award miles?

These and other details about your travels will help point you in the right direction.

Oh, sorry, I would probably advise you to stick with CO's mileage program. You can qualify with 25K miles or 30 flights, while with NW you can ONLY do the 25K mile qualification.

NW does, however, have some better bonus mile offers AND NW agents can manually upgrade you if EUA does not clear.

Well, I think this is a little more of an urban legend than anything.

You should check to see the aircraft CO and NW use out of your airport. CO has pretty much standardized a 31" coach pitch and 17.2" width throughout their fleet. NW's coach seating is slightly more variable, and detailed info can be found here. Sometimes NW will have 32", sometimes 30" (one-in-a-while, 33" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif).

Clearly, YMMV depending on how they both service your airport.

No, NW will give status if someone flies high-fare Elite Qualifying Segments: segments booked in P, F, J, C, Z, Y, S, or B classes. 20 of these will give Silver, 40 for Gold, and 60 for Plat. So, a high-fare flier can earn status by segments faster on NW than on CO.

Details here: http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/elite/overview.html

The best choice really does rest on rsjuden's travel patterns.

[This message has been edited by Viajero Joven (edited 05-27-2003).]

I was advise to stay with CO. I have found (in my personal experience) that CO has better service, comfy(er) seats, food, and movies. Good luck getting a decent meal or movie on NW, or a good seat for that matter. But as most have said, it really depends on your travel patterns. If your looking for free tickets, then DO NOT join worldperks. Its nearly impossible to redeem standard award tickets to anywhere, unless you are extremely, extremely, flexible

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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif ...and Continental's better?! I'm able to find award seats to the destination I want, on the date I want, about 3/4 of the time on NW; and I can get the exact flights I want most of the time. I always check Continental's availability, and find it less than 1/3 of the time – and most of that 1/3 comes within days of travel, when CO charges steep fees (and NW does not). Neither airlines has abundant Business seats available… if you’re looking for award availability, you’ll probably want to look into AAdvantage.

Have to agree... unless you are going to consistantly be elite, AA's got far better redemption (and more partners through oneworld) than NW/CO.

Steve

In fairness, NW didn’t intend for the information listed on the pages you linked to to be analyzed as you did, so their information is a little deceptive http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif… NW’s jet fleet has 31” inches of pitch, but some (and only some) seats (usually the bulkhead/exit rows) have more room. The DC-9 have thinner seats and therefore only 30” of pitch. The cabin of the A320 family is wider than that of the B737, therefore the seats are wider on NW’s A319/A320… and, of course, with CO’s fleet composition approaching half regional jets, you’re space is going to be limited http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

CO’s B767/B777 fleet (allegedly) has an extra inch of pitch (32 vs. 31) in the elite rows… I can’t tell the difference, though.

[This message has been edited by IndustrialPatent (edited 05-27-2003).]

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[This message has been edited by infiniteflyer (edited 05-27-2003).]

It depends (as others have stated) which airport is your home airport. If you are not in a major city, chances are Continental uses only RJ's out of your airport. In my particular case (I enjoy upgrades) Continental ONLY uses RJ's therefore no chance of upgrades. I changed to Northwest last year and have enjoyed a 80% upgrade success. I changed to NW and so far Iam very happy I did. Out of my home airport (SDF) the NW personnel seem easier to get along with than the CO folks. GOOD LUCK !

Yeah, if CO's flying RJs to your city and NW is not, it's a no-brainer.

Lots of variables here, most have already been mentioned. I like CO's FC a lot better (better seats, drink selection, possibility of food). But that doesn't extend to getting stuck in the back, especially on long hauls & international. Would rather be on NW's old 747s and DC-9s than CO's newer 767s/777s or (ugh) 737-800s.

In those cases, new hasn't meant better. The CO planes feel tighter in coach both in pitch and width (even if only by an inch). Even worse, the individualized video units on 767s/777s usually mean that every third seat loses nearly HALF its legroom to the wiring box.

Another variable: Special offers and bonuses. CO used to really reign with those but has cut way back in the last 2 years, especially on ones that don't exclude T, Q and L fare classes. NW seems to have more offers and gives at least something for lowest fares.

Which airline you fly and which program you are in (between partners) are two separate issues that usually have minimal connection. You could fly CO most of the time and use NW WorldPerks, or fly NW and use OnePass.

Some of the exceptions are:
- Many promotions are for flights operated by the promoting airline and limited to their FF program. For instance, the double miles promotions in late 2001 were limited to trips on the airline's own planes (metal).
- Purchase-online, check-in-online, etc. are usually limited to matching program and metal.
- The upgrade priorities are slightly different. On NW metal NW Plats come before CO Plats, but I have had very good luck with upgrades on NW with CO Plat.
- Discounts for club memberships are available only to members of the corresponding FF program. So, if you want a World Club membership at a discount, use the World Perks program. The same is true for CO. World Perks members can use America West's clubs, but President Club members cannot. If club useage at one of the other partners is important to you, check out the restrictions. Some may require your club membership be the same as the metal you are flying on.

Some of the specific advantages of the two programs are mentioned in other posts. Among the key ones are:
-NW personnel can manually upgrade you before airport arrival if the computer misses you.
-NW does not give full mileage for weekend specials, but CO does.
-CO gives segment credit for substantially all fares, NW does not.

Re metal selection, some other points are:
-NW upgrades the domestic portion of international trips, but CO does not.
-To use an Amex Platinum card to gain access to clubs, your flight and club must match.
- In some airports, the other airline's club may not be geographically attractive (either distance or security zones). For instance, if you are flying CO to Tokyo, the NW clubs are in a different terminal and the shuttle service is not conducive switching just to visit NW's club.

Actually if you buy a Full Y fare on CO you will get a 50% bonus towards Elite, however it won't count to your actual mileage total.

So you if you buy full coach fares you can get to Silver by flying 16,667 miles; gold by flying 33,334 and plat by flying 50,000.

(Someone please correct me if I am mistaken).

- HF