Uh, do you really want to recommend flying CZ on one's honeymoon? ;)

It might be a little bit played out or cliche by now, but if it's beaches and not too much else you want, why not Bora Bora?

If it gets me to Noumea or Rarotonga on miles, in Biz, I'd be willing to put up with it. Thankfully, as I'm now hoarding *A miles, that shouldn't be an issue when I go on honeymoon.

I have now been on the phone (mostly on hold) with the Elite Line for 45 minutes, as they struggle to figure out how to book an Elite Force Y fare on a sold-out flight... :td:

Perhaps revenue management is not allowing elite forcing on the flight in question.

No. They just managed to book it. Only took 50 minutes.

Were you able to secure seat 21E?

I must be a closet masochist. I just booked a trip on NW where every segment is a DC9... and I had to fight with the travel agent to buy it since it was the only option for all non-stop flights, and it was $225 more than what AA and US were charging for an itinerary with connections. So, in my quest to get upgraded and stick to CO and NW as much as possible, and fly nonstop, I've put myself on flights on planes that might have been flying before my parents were married, that have a high chance of being delayed, which could negate the time savings of a nonstop flight versus a connection. And I got to spend 30 minutes fighting with World Travel justifying why I'm booking a more expensive itinerary when several substantially cheaper options were available. But in the end, they completed the reservation and issued a ticket, I don't have to fly US or AA, and I get to fly on an aircraft possibly built during the Johnson administration.

Isn't there a point where they have to retire the DC-9's. Airtran bought all new 717's on fuel savings alone vis-a-vie the DC-9.

That takes money. If I recall, NW uses baubles, trinkets and shiny shell-beads to pad its balance sheets these days...

Which is far more than it uses to pad the seats even in F on those old 9's...

Unfortunately there's not really a good replacement for the DC-9 at NW on the market. The EMB-195 is probably the best bet, but the 717 would have really been better. NW could have directly replaced the DC-9-30 fleet with 717s, which are essentially the same size, but much more modern and fuel efficient. The 318 is similar in capacity to the larger DC-9s, but costs about the same as the larger 319s and 320s to operate (the same issue the 735/736 has with the larger 733/73Gs), so it's not really a good replacement, since the operating costs would likely be higher.

So NW continues to fly those old planes, with no real plan for phasing them out. They may be old, prone to mechanical delays, loud, uncomfortable, and burn a lot of gas, but they are paid for.

I am not sure how comfortable I feel flying CZ ;)

The Cook Islands look pretty good and I am going to see what the total costs would be.

I thought CR7s or CR9s with F seats were set to replace NW's DC9's?

What's wrong with CZ?

The CR9s so far are mainly upgrading existing CRJ routes. They may replace a few of the current DC-9s, but they really are more of a replacement for the former DC-9-10 fleet. NW's CR9s and E75s have 76 seats, while the current DC-9s (30, 40, and 50 series) have 100-125 seats. So, in many cases, the CR9s and E75s are too small to replace the remaining DC-9s.