readywhenyouare

There was a local radio reporter in Memphis who once said "Northwest Airlines, you'll feel like you never left the ground because we treat you like dirt".

fly747first

Yep and some flyers were even more explicit calling it "Northworst" or "Northwaste". I personally love the DTW McNamara Terminal that NWA created, but that's about the only good thing I can say about NW.

cmd320

I definitely remember the Northworst monicker. My biggest complaint was the airport in DTW. Though I must credit NW on the new DTW which is honestly one of the finest terminals in the US now.

blug

Two things I love about NW:

• Their last livery, introduced in 2003. I find it stunningly beautiful.
• DTW's McNamara Terminal, which gives quite a futuristic look.

Richard Anderson was the man behind both of them. I may not agree with him on frequent flyer programs but I sure like his aesthetic sense.

NOLAnwGOLD

I recall one of my most memorable flights was a result of a misconnect from TPE-NRT-LAX-MSP at LAX. I had my mom's preferred frequent flier upgrade coupon on the new flight, and the agent didn't take it, but still put me to FC, on a 747. I was in the same row, opposite sides from Prince. Circa 1991 or so. I stood right behind him as we waiting for the door to open in MSP and the and his travel partner ran off the plane up the jetway to one of the old gates where you the ramp up to the gate, where a NWA cart was waiting and whisked him away. Small guy, HUGE presence.

Velocipediste

In the '80's, DTW was my "local" airport. Flying anywhere meant NW.

DTW-BOS-DTW was DC-9's.
DTW-LAX-DTW and DTW-SFO-DTW were 727's.
DTW to south Texas for a corporate retreat involved a DC-10.

Sorry, I don't know which variants of those types were used. I do remember being in back on a homeward bound redeye and sleeping on the economy-lieflat bed.

bosman

Two (very opposite) NWA memories from that period:

- MSP - LAX flew on a brand new 747-400 in F that was undergoing it's "shake-out runs" (there probably is a more formal term for this) TCON before going overseas. Sweet.
- Conversely, MSP - SEA, they only catered for half of Y, so half of us only got peanuts (this was back when you actually got a meal in Y).

MSPeconomist

Getting the new DTW terminal made a huge difference in customer service attitudes. Before then, insiders avoided DTW like the plague. The overhead red train is still fun, but I MISS MY ROCK.

My favorite livery was the special 747-400 painted with kids' artwork, IIRC to celebrate UNICEF.

For a while, there was an old 747 with the chandelier over the staircase that was kept parked at MSP as a spare plane to pull out during IROPs. One March, I flew it twice on domestic routes: MSP-LAX due to MX and ORD-MSP due to WX, specifically crosswinds all day on a Friday that grounded narrow body aircraft. PMNW sent the 747 down to ORD to consolidate a bunch of DC-9 flights and scoop up all of the "Fasttrak" business travelers who would otherwise have been stranded in Chicago for much of the weekend. I was given an upper deck seat and initially did a double take at the seat number, thinking that I would be losing my upgrade.

mot29

I'm guessing DTW-South Texas involved a connection in MEM. I recall a few MSP-MEM flights on 10s when I would connect going to see my folks in New Orleans.
Economy lie-flat, I assume means all 5 seats across the center of the DC-10?

DTWflyer

Here is my best guess based upon the aircraft type and where/how they operated in 1989:

LGA-DTW good chance this was a "new" 757, but was also flown with a mix of D9S, D95, 72S, and the "new" A320
DTW-MCO this was likely either a 72S or a 757
MCO-MEM was either a D9S, 72S, or 757
MEM-BOS could've been 72S, 320, or maybe an M80
BOS-LGA - D9S

DavidDTW

That was the punchline for an old SNL commercial parody for TransEastern Airlines, way back with either the original or first replacement cast.

n7371f

NWA was an operationally fantastic airline.

It has a far greater history for aviation prowess and histrionics than its surviving merger partner (just look at Asia flying).

Gruff employee relations with management was a constant problem during its run and created a consistently inconsistent service record between front line workers and customers. Ironically, the period under Richard's leadership was among the smoothest in the carrier's history. The unions despised Dasburg and Steenland had difficulty relating and talking to common folk. Richard saw where the airline was headed with AMFA (strike) and got the hell out and saved his reputation, which would later come back to be of huge value in the eyes of Delta lifers.

Throughout the 90's and into the 2000's, NWA made up for its lack of pizazz with a superior FF program in WorldPerks where upgrades were plentiful to a Platinum member and mileage redemption was low and simple. And their operation was more reliable and consistent.

Perhaps the biggest loss is Northwest's technology - despite being gone for a decade, remains vastly superior to anything Delta tries to throw at me due to the clunky decision to remain on the Deltamatic system. nwa.com in 2008 runs circles around delta.com in 2020. Even now, when facing an irrop, it takes 10-15 minutes of a Delta agent typing code to get a reissue or a reissue desk on the phone vs NWA's AOP system where an agent could do it in a minute. I wonder how much $ is wasted on this alone. And despite that, a heavy amount of Delta's success and efficiency, especially on the ops side, is driven directly from what NWA did.

Oh...and the 1989 Landor designed logo and paint job remains an all-time classic IMO.

NOLAnwGOLD

Yeah as Gold I almost never flew in Y domestically. Was totally awesome! I do miss many things about NWA but service-wise DL overall and the SC are way better quality now.

HDQDD

That gets my vote for funniest post of the month...

hnewman

727 for sure. I had to deplane in Feb. and the jet bridge was frozen and we had to go out the rear stairs. Coming from Tampa it was about 100 degrees difference.