On the lighter side of things... Why do you fly?
 

I had posted this already but didn't follow the rules :eek: - hopefully this thread meets the cut :D

To lighten things up a bit, I thought we could post about why we are flying Northwest. I'll start...

I fly Northwest because I am a Systems Integration Specialists for a company that developed and sells PACS systems. I fly to hospitals all over the US and install equipment for these systems. Basically we make the hospital "film free" in a nut shell. I choose Northwest because I have always liked the service, the WP program and now the elite program ^

A second part to my original email was to showcase any special travel tips one might have while flying Northwest. For instance, I always keep 2 of everything I might ever need while traveling, so I rarely have to unpack or repack anything except clothes. I am sure other seasoned travelers will have better tips.

This is a hostile free thread, to maybe help us come together a bit and even though there is a lot going on to be upset about right now, it doesn't mean we can't have fun too.

Enjoy!

because it's the only direct flight to MSP to see family.

I fly mostly for work (maybe 70%), but also for leisure. Why NW? I've always traveled TATL; the NW/KL partnership is why I started flying them. KL sucked for a few years and NW was flying DC10's across the pond. During that time I switched to BA but returned to NW as they introduced the new TATL fleet and as KL got better. (After almost 3 dormant years NW had not closed my WP account^) I lived in BOS for a few years and NW had direct flights to AMS.

Domestically, I like NW because they have convenient flights to various destinations, competitive prices (although not so much recently which is why I sometimes fly US), and good hubs.

For TATL travel I think NW is the best, especially due to partnership with KL (AMS is by far the best airport in EU and KL has good connections, destinations, etc). I also love the NW 330's.

Other reasons - very good WP program (including Elite benefits!), the BEST website and good customer service. Also because DL sucks and CO does not have a good partnership in the EU, CDG sucks also (more negative points for DL), CO has too many barby jets for domestic flights and both DL and CO hubs are inferior to NW. I also think ST is much better than *A (as far as I'm concerned).

I fly because for me, there is nothing more relaxing. I have to fly for work roughly once a month on average, but try to fly any chance I can get. I am never more relaxed than when I am tucked into an F seat on a NW flight, or when I am hanging out at the DTW WorldClub.

I fly NWA because I live in Detroit. I have grown to be comfortable with them, and know what to expect. You might say I have grown to love them. :D

Because it's so gosh darn fun. :D

So, why NW for me? Basically the same reasons as james318 except that I don't fly for work.

Because NW invited me to go to OTP cheap, that's why. ;)

Living in DCA with my entire family near FNT makes NW the natural choice for my 20ish DCA-DTW RTs a year. (Of course, I would be a Plat on segments if NW ever had any reasonable fares into FNT from DCA, but I digress) After that, I enjoy the 330's internationally and to HNL. Also, NW's program is one that with a little skill and some knowledge a person can have a great flight experience most of the time, between sitting in F, enjoying the fine Worldclubs, and stopovers in AMS that is. :)

It's too far to swim.:D
Dave

I fly for work to build relationships. I fly for fun to explore the wonder of our world.

All the hot FA's. :p

I guess I'm a masochist. I honestly have no idea why I fly NW anymore. It's like muscle memory.

Honestly, I fly because I can get a direct flight to pretty much anywhere from DTW. I'm a PE and probably won't get matched that on other airlines. I love the EAU, you just can't beat it on any domestic carrier (except maybe CO, but they sell a lot of F seats, so they are harder to get on CO).

I love the new DTW terminal, I love the WC's with all their free wi-fi and alcohol goodness, better than any other domestic club system hands down.

so you're the person who stalks the Seattle based FA's....to each their own :)

Myself I fly NWA because I work on the east coast but live in the midwest and I know if I can make it to DTW they can get me home without a problem (other options are ATL or EWR/CLE....CO has too many jungle jets and EWR is just a joke as is ATL) NWA has served me well over the years as my office has moved around the country and so I've stayed loyal to them

Yeah, never been to SEA, sorry ;)

I don't actually enjoy flying that much. Especially when you factor in the TSA, airport lines, and the general unenjoyable experience that flying is these days. However, I do like to go to places, often far, far away. And I'd rather go in first class, or get enough nifty miles to go somewhere else in first class with these miles. NW is usually dependable, and handles problems quite well.

I only wish the my teleportation skills were better. :D

simply: NWA is always the cheapest flight from Nairobi to TVC Michigan, but these upgrades and AMS as a rockin' airport certainly helps things out.

I fly because I after my first book was published, I started receiving regular invitations to speak at conferences and other events--and Montana is just WAY too far away from everything to do anything other than fly.

I flly NWA because even as a lowly Silver, I'm upgraded on 90% of my flights ... and as a PE, I'm always upgraded. (Plus, I love to upgrade friends or even strangers at the gate.)

I also fly NWA because our ground crew in BIL is fantastic. (The manager stayed on after all of the long-time employees were let go.) He has trained his new team well too and they always take great care of their frequent flyers.

(Thanks for the non-hostile thread! :) )

I fly NWA, beacuse it is the lesser of evils. I fly just about everyday. I live in Nashville, so I have to connect to most places, or fly SWA. ATL, ORD every night are not fun. I like prefer to connect through MEM, only because it is smaller and faster then DTW. DTW is a nice airport, but the taxis are starting to get long. ATL & ORD I would not get to enough places as I am in meetings or onsite for at most a day or two and then go to another client.

Purely practical.
 

I fly because it's basically the only sensible way to get between the island I live on and anywhere else in the world.

I fly NW because they give me:

• Treatment at least as good as I can expect (usually better).
• Especially good treatment as an elite living in Hawaii.
• CO as a closely-integrated backup option. :)
• Nonstop partner flights places like EWR-EDI and AMS-EBB.
• MSP, DTW and AMS.

I fly NW because they don't give me:

• TATL mileage runarounds (AA/BA).
• AQ as an inter-island partner in Hawaii (UA).
• ORD (AA/UA) or LHR (BA).
• Utter panic at the first snowflake (UA).
• All cattle car, all the time (FF).

I travel 95% for work but as others have said, I really do enjoy the act of traveling itself. My position is truly a Global one with responsibilities in the US (BOS, MSN and SFO) Europe (IRE and AMS) and Asia (JP and HKG) and NW is the best choice for those destinations. I live in the BOS area and can get to AMS direct and work often out of one of my companys CA offices (mostly the Bay area) and love the service to Asia NW provides there. Commuting from BOS to SFO is also nice on NW with DTW and MSP being great hubs. Of course, the free UG's on every trans-con is the reason I fly them domestically. NW has a pretty good set of hooks in this traveler.

I fly NWA because DTW is the nearest airport and NW has the most non-stops flights to the places I need to travel to in North America. So if there is a non-stop that is not operated by a DC9, I choose NW. For TATL I enjoy to fly LH C or some *A alternative due to corporate contracts.

DTW's NW terminal is great. I get to use the NW club thru my Amex Plat and that is nice too. With the DTW north terminal coming up next summer things should improve there too. I know for sure the LH lounge is moving there and UA/US/AC will set up a joint *A lounge/club too which I should have no problems getting in there with my LH*G ;)

Because I can't walk on water...at least not yet.

NW World Perks Program is the Best!
 

My entire family fly NW 100% of the time. We especially like the upgrade program and make extra trips to maintain status. Without that it would be price, price, price, on a minimum of trips.

80% of my flying is for Biz. I go and visit clients in US frequently.

The reasons for NW:
1. Gotten use to the system - knowing what to expect, little surprises (believe my, there will be new surprises under the sun)
2. Miles, 125% bonus is hard to reject! Usable or not is another issue :-(
3. Lack for love from Grandma! Sorry, can't resist on this one :-)

Force of habit. I have a lot of family in Minnesota and I grew up flying NW. Now, half of the flying I do is to Asia and I really never thought of flying on a different airline. So far NW hasn’t given me a reason to court other airlines.

When I moved back to Detroit from the West coast I had Gold status on AA, and because of our travel policy (cheapest flight) I kept flying AA for a while. I finally convinced someone that 3 hours in the Admirals club in Chicago wasn't that bad for me, but was a stupid way to get to Pittsburg. I've since made GE on NW based on segments.

I like the fact that I can get to Monday morning meetings at our offices around the NE US from Detroit without Sunday travel.

I like the fact that I can get my breakfast at the WC on my way to the morning meetings and get free Wi-Fi to check my e-mail.

I like the fact that status matters on NW, I get upgraded more often than not.

I like the fact that the WC partners offer me a club at most of the major airports.

I like the fact that I can get Fat Tire on tap at the Delta club in Denver.

Because nothing makes me happier than boarding a red-tail CRJ!

after seeing the majority of them you might never go either :D on your next flight as a FA what the FA's stereotype of a Seattle based FA is...

And you still maintain NW Platinum? :-:

I started flying NWA almost exclusively in 2003, when I could no longer stand UA. Most of my work trips are international: Both to Asia and to Europe. I travel a lot domestically, but mostly for personal reasons.

It was great in 2003-2004. I could upgrade any international itinerary I wanted and got EUA domestically 100% of the time. In 2005, when the EUA started to drop off, I discovered how pitifully awful NWA Y is. I started flying most CO domestically, but the EUA's aren't there.

My current harmony is that I use NW for the international trips and CO for domestic. I have Plat on both, but believe that WP is a much better program than OP. Fortunately this year, I've been able to upgrade most of the CO domestic trips with miles.

At the risk of ruining the lovefest, yesterday--for the first time since July 2003--I purchased a ticket on a carrier different from NW/KLM for an upcoming international trip. I am just so tired of the management-labor BS.

Sky Team probably has the best domestic coverage in the US, so for work or leisure I am covered. In addition, the WP Program for elites I think is as good as it gets on any legacy. Often a traveling companion upgrades with me for free on leisure trips and that cannot be overlooked. Oh yeah... there is a certain airline in CLT that has a hub that is shall we say AWFUL!!! That inspires the decision also.:D

I live in MSP, so it is the obvious choice. Good upgrade success, even as SE. Reward tickets - I've had good luck using miles at standard levels - a little flexibility on dates works wonders. 125% mileage match. Four or more rows of first class on every plane.

As GTITAN mentions about CLT, flying US is a traumatic experience in my book. I maintained status on NW and had it on US. After moving back to MSP, it is all NW all the time.

That choice of a :-: was appropriate since I count my lucky :-:s daily. I've been fortunate to find a way to make it work. :)

I do not fly because I want to. I fly because of the nutritional value of flying..No fly-no eat!

I fly NW because DL pissed me off royally after over 3MM.

Sounds interesting. Care to expound?

I go to grad school at Michigan and fly out of DTW. NW gives me nonstop domestic flights to wherever I need to go and upgrades me on most of them. Better terminal too. Also, the 15K SIN-DTW upgrades for the decent ex-SIN Y fares aren't half bad.

I fly because I live in two places that are far apart, and driving is not an option.

I am a member of WP because, well, because. I have yet to set foot on an NW plane this year.

They devalued their miles many years ago (remember FT'ers who bought an add in the WSJ? Mikey was one of them)

Recently they did away with "old miles" and converted them to new miles....talk about how not to treat your best customers

I fly NW because of it's hubs. I don't have to connect through IAD, ORD, DFW, LAX, SFO, or JFK. DTW and MSP are great places to connect through, maybe except in the winter :rolleyes:

I fly NW because I like quick connection times. I don't want to be hanging around in an airport for 5-7 hrs.

I fly NW because they have lounges that don't offer drink passes/coupons. I want to drink all I want and not be limitied.

I fly NW because I do business in Asia and their flights to Asia are fantastic (outside of no NRT-TPE).

I fly NW because it just works for me.

I live in DTW and have to fly every week for work, NW is the obvious choice.

I like its elite line agents who's been nice/patient helping me search complex award routes.

I like its skyteam alliance, esp. in Asia.

Maybe because I am a workaholic, banking miles is a lot easier than using it; trying to convince my parents to use my miles hasn't been easy.