I have it on good word that NWA will be annoucing soon a direct flight from MSP to Paris on NWA in early 2007.

Direct or nonstop? If it's direct it must be tagging on to the existing Detroit flight.

Sorry, a direct flight (not going through DTW). A MSP-PAR direct flight coming soon in early 2007.

If it's not a non-stop, then what use is this? Any airline can stick a flight number on some airline and do an equipment change at another airport and call it a "direct" flight, right? If it's a non-stop, then ^^

as far as I know it's non-stop, direct. To me they are the same terms. I DO understand that they are different though.

That would be fantastic! Not that I like CDG (I actually truly HATE this poorly organized jumble of an airport) but there are connections on ST that are served from CDG but not from AMS. Plus, AF/KL is rationalizing their routes to avoid overlapping, so I may need to connect via CDG (Grrrr....)

Would you mind sharing your source of the "good words", either here or via PM?

I have heard a lot of speculation recently about new routes and the only ones I really give a grain of salt to are the ones that come from somewhere inside NW.

If there is in fact a new non-stop MSP-CDG, this will be nice for award redemption and the like, but it's still not the dramatic route changes that I hope for (and expect soon) from NW. It's overlap to the DTW-CDG service, but I can understand if the need has arisen to create more capacity on the major SkyTeam hub-to-hub routes. With any luck, it will be a dual-service with NW A333 and an AF A340 or B747. Would love to see some AF birds around the airport.

I have heard from my friend who is a DTW GA that loads on DTW-CDG, even in the summer, weren't amazing, but maybe with a better online codeshare system, this could be very useful.

You should change the way you use them. They mean very different things. "Non-stop" means the plane doesn't stop anywhere between two places. "Direct" means you can fly with the same flight number between two places, with as many stops and equipment changes as they want. "Non-stops" are always "direct," but there are many "direct" flights that are far from "non-stop."

You should generally avoid "direct" flights like the plague. You earn miles as if it were a nonstop, so whereas MSP-DTW-CDG is 4490 EQMs, you'd only earn 4222 EQMs for a MSP-CDG "direct" flight with a stop in DTW. And the flight is treated as a single flight for EUA purposes, so you have a 0% chance of upgrade on MSP-DTW if you're flying MSP-CDG "direct," whereas you have a decent shot at an upgrade if it's a connecting flight.

What a waste, seems unlikely to me. Very few experienced flyers would ever take this flight if they had to connect given all the connection issues in CDG and the quality of the staff. Most flyers would continue to take AMS for their connections; which just leaves people looking for a direct to Paris. Again, a pretty undesireable option as long as it is primarily inhabited by the French!

AF & FL are not fully intergrated yet. And remember a MSP-CDG flight benefits NW because AF can send a ton of folks from all over their huge network to MSP and beyond. The NW & AF codeshare has just begun. I think it makes sense and offers all of us additional options to get to/from Europe.

DTW has BOTH a NW and an AF flight to/from CDG almost every day.

That said CDG is no AMS in terms of ease of use, but the new DTW-style people mover should help a lot when it's finished. Once NW & DL can move back to the real 2E that will help a lot too.

Well a direct MSP-DTW-CDG flight on the A333 would be EXCELLENT. I would love to see the A330 on the MSP-DTW segment. This, of course, is a pipe dream.

Not only a pipe dream, but dramatic overkill.

NW does not run domestic segments with their wide-body international equipment. They're not going to put in a "new route" which, in effect, would just be a second DTW-CDG flight that happens to start out in MSP and end in MSP. It would be rather pointless and a waste of resources. If they were ever to consider a "direct" flight, it would probably be MSP-BOS/JFK-CDG. But that's not NW's style, so I would give it about as much of a chance of happening as I would give myself getting an op-up (I'm 0-for-life... ).

CDG is the 7th largest airport in the world for passenger traffic (with about 20% more traffic than AMS) and serves destinations that AMS does not. Yes, I much prefer AMS, but it's a no brainer that, if you play on a team with AF, you need hub flights to CDG.

(I suspect a flight to CDG ex MSP could do better than ex DTW: there are already plenty of flight from the east coast, but not that many from the midwest.)