SEA-DTW-SEA
Nov 23, 1999 | 3:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: SFO
Programs: No status anymore. Former CO PLT, NW PLT, AS MVP
Posts: 502
SEA-DTW-SEA
Sunday, November 21, 1999
NW50 SEA-DTW
I arrived at SeaTac at 11:10 for this 12:30 flight, quickly parked on Level 6, and headed into the terminal. After dropping off some mail and grabbing some cash from the ATM (both required crossing a rather lengthy line for the A gates), I took the train to the South Satellite, along with a large group of people headed for either Tokyo or Taipei. The South Satellite wasn't that crowded, and I was able to quickly check in.
The agent was kind enough to let me upgrade a second companion on the flight. So I left the counter two certificates lighter. Not that I'm too concerned...AusTXHiker was kind enough to pass two on to me a few weeks ago, so I had 'em to burn. Thanks, Mark!
Because one of my co-workers was a bit late arriving, I got a chance to see the zoo of general boarding. I've mostly forgotten just how irritating it is for everyone to crowd the boarding area well before their row is called, thus preventing the rest of us from boarding at all. Someone needs to deny those people boarding entirely!
No difficulties once we got to the jetway and boarded through the second door on this DC-10. I found a spot for my carrion (I like misspelling it that way), in part because this aircraft had overhead bins over the center in First. Some NW DC-10s don't. The interior was clean and new, except for the seats. The seats were quite comfortable, overall, though they do tend to have a few odd pressure points, like on the back of my knees. The main screen was a 20-something-inch LCD panel...the first time I've seen that on an airplane. I mean, I've seen LCDs for a while, but not as the main screen on a widebody. It was clear and bright. Too bad NW doesn't show any movies domestically anymore.
The flight attendants served drinks while we were on the ground.
The doors closed at 12:25, and we pushed back right on schedule at 12:30. Taxiing took a while, as we were taking off to the south and there was a line for the runway. We started the takeoff roll at 12:42. As we were rolling down the runway, I noticed that AA has taken delivery of 777s now...their daily flight to Tokyo was pushing back from the gate.
The ascent was uneventfully smooth, and they came by to start serving lunch as we began cruise. The lunch choices were a hot ham and swiss on a baguette with a side salad, or a smoked chicken salad. Having had one of their hot sandwiches with the side salad before and been very disappointed, I opted for the chicken salad this time. They started off with drinks (I had a decent Chardonnay) and pretzels. No hot towel, either. *sigh* NW sure ain't CO. The salad was adequate, better than the sandwich, but still not that great. The dressing came in a sealed plastic cup, and the salt and pepper were in paper packets. The chicken in the salad had a rather hefty chunk of fat on it, and tasted heavily processed. The chocolate ice cream (which, like my last NW lunch flight, was served on the tray at the same time as everything else) was pretty tasty. The flight attendants were quite pleasant, but they didn't keep my water glass full throughout the flight.
Cruise was as smooth as you could ask for, and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Descent was a bit choppy and we landed in light fog. The taxiing took forever to get to the gate; many passengers got impatient and started collecting luggage before we were stopped at Gate C12. In the end, the captain forgot to turn off the fasten seat belt sign until the lead FA reminded him.
Deplaning was through the forward door, which I hate on DC-10s.
Overall, this flight rates a 7. On time, but I really expect better treatment in FC than NW provides in general.
On the way out of the terminal, we stopped at the WorldClub so I could confirm an upgrade seat for companion #2 on the return flight. The club, like the rest of the terminal, was like a ghost town. 'Course, it was about 19:40, too. The agent in the club was quite pleasant and upgraded him without complaint (after I mentioned that he was on a Y-26 fare).
This was my first time in DTW. What an ugly, spread-out terminal! It has got to be the nastiest hub I've seen. NW just has this flair for behaving like an airline that doesn't plan on being around next year. This was essentially confirmed to me by a brief conversation I had with the lead FA on the flight about the equipment, and he noted that NW isn't buying any new planes other than the A320s; they're buying a whole bunch of used DC-10s and hush-kitting the 727s and DC-9s.
We got a bus to the Avis lot...it smelled like an ashtray. Ick ick ick. The car itself, a Dodge Stratus, was fine.
Residence Inn, Ann Arbor
No difficulties getting to Ann Arbor, but it was a little hard to find the Residence Inn in the fog. The place is the typical old Condo-style Residence Inn, which I prefer, though they have one new apartment-style building as well. My room was a studio on the ground floor of a building right next to the freeway. Fortunately, the room was on the side facing away from the freeway. It still was a little on the noisy side from the traffic. The toilet had a slow leak that caused repeated slow refills of the tank. Otherwise, the room was pretty much as expected. They had two phone lines, a nice first for my Residence Inn experiences. Unfortunately, I could only get about 19.2kbps on it.
Breakfast included the do-it-yourself Belgian waffles, and the fixin's for sausage/egg/cheese/english muffin sandwiches. That amounted to a slightly better than average selection compared to other previous Residence Inn experiences.
No real major surprises, good or bad, as Residence Inns go. This place rates a 7.5.
Monday, November 22, 1999
NW51 DTW-SEA
We arrived quite early for the flight, as our meeting didn't go quite as long as I thought it might. Dropping off the car was a breeze; they handed me the receipt within two minutes of arrival, and the bus to the terminal left as soon as we got on. Unlike the bus from the outbound, this one smelled fine. They dropped us off at the terminal in front of Concourse E, so we went into the WorldClub by Concourse E...noted that it was tiny, and proceeded to the one by Concourse C instead. I synchronized email, got a few things to drink, and settled in with my coworkers. Around two hours before the 19:25 flight was scheduled to leave, we checked in at the Club desk. The very nice gentleman checked all three of us in, printed out our boarding passes, and kindly forgot to ask for the certificates for my companions. So I kindly "forgot" to offer them. Easy as can be.
The Club was clean overall, and was crowded around 16:00, but for the rest of our stay there was rather empty. We hung out another 90 minutes or so, and my companions got some of the frozen yogurt while we chatted. Then we headed to Gate F9 (quite a hike from the C-concourse WorldClub).
After NW50 dropped us off at DTW, it continued on to CDG, turned around, and kindly picked us up on its way back to SEA. Different crew, though; they don't have the same people on the domestic segments as the internationals for these flights.
They began boarding through the second door about 25 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Naturally, the cabin looked exactly the same as we left it the day before. Boarding seemed to be orderly, and we were offered drinks on the ground.
The door was closed six minutes early, but we weren't able to push back until 13 minutes later. According to the captain, our pushback was delayed because the adjacent DC-9 had just pushed back a few minutes before, and hadn't gotten out of the way yet.
Taxi was inordinately long. I guess that's par for the course at DTW. We were seventh for takeoff. The takeoff and climb were smooth, as was most of the flight, though there was a bit of turbulence somewhere near Fargo.
Shortly before we reached cruise, they came by with the drinks and the peanuts/pretzels. The dinner choices were roasted chicken breast with orzo or lime-crusted trout with smoky tomato. This came with a side salad, dinner roll, and ice cream. Given my past experiences with NW food, I couldn't trust that the trout would be safe, so I opted for the chicken. The side salad, like the last one I had on NW, had moist croutons and slightly wilted lettuce. The sourdough roll was served warm, and was rather tasty. The chicken and orzo were cooked together in a ceramic dish. Overall, the presentation reminded me of coach meals on international flights. The chicken itself was interesting, coated with a bunch of herbs and spices. The orzo had an odd off-flavor of mushrooms. Unlike NW's lunch flights, the chocolate ice cream was served separately after the meal.
The FA service was a hair below that of the outbound flight.
We arrived about twenty minutes early and quickly pulled into Gate S7. They quickly hooked up the jetway, and the FAs made sure to let the first class passengers off first, a nice touch.
This flight rates a 7.5. Getting in early is always welcome...I just wish they'd provide better service in the air.
No difficulties getting out of the airport. I do love those new pay kiosks...no lines anywhere! Now that rates a 10 (or four paws up, in Catman parlance)!
------------------
Michael
OnePass Platinum
NW50 SEA-DTW
I arrived at SeaTac at 11:10 for this 12:30 flight, quickly parked on Level 6, and headed into the terminal. After dropping off some mail and grabbing some cash from the ATM (both required crossing a rather lengthy line for the A gates), I took the train to the South Satellite, along with a large group of people headed for either Tokyo or Taipei. The South Satellite wasn't that crowded, and I was able to quickly check in.
The agent was kind enough to let me upgrade a second companion on the flight. So I left the counter two certificates lighter. Not that I'm too concerned...AusTXHiker was kind enough to pass two on to me a few weeks ago, so I had 'em to burn. Thanks, Mark!
Because one of my co-workers was a bit late arriving, I got a chance to see the zoo of general boarding. I've mostly forgotten just how irritating it is for everyone to crowd the boarding area well before their row is called, thus preventing the rest of us from boarding at all. Someone needs to deny those people boarding entirely!
No difficulties once we got to the jetway and boarded through the second door on this DC-10. I found a spot for my carrion (I like misspelling it that way), in part because this aircraft had overhead bins over the center in First. Some NW DC-10s don't. The interior was clean and new, except for the seats. The seats were quite comfortable, overall, though they do tend to have a few odd pressure points, like on the back of my knees. The main screen was a 20-something-inch LCD panel...the first time I've seen that on an airplane. I mean, I've seen LCDs for a while, but not as the main screen on a widebody. It was clear and bright. Too bad NW doesn't show any movies domestically anymore.
The flight attendants served drinks while we were on the ground.
The doors closed at 12:25, and we pushed back right on schedule at 12:30. Taxiing took a while, as we were taking off to the south and there was a line for the runway. We started the takeoff roll at 12:42. As we were rolling down the runway, I noticed that AA has taken delivery of 777s now...their daily flight to Tokyo was pushing back from the gate.
The ascent was uneventfully smooth, and they came by to start serving lunch as we began cruise. The lunch choices were a hot ham and swiss on a baguette with a side salad, or a smoked chicken salad. Having had one of their hot sandwiches with the side salad before and been very disappointed, I opted for the chicken salad this time. They started off with drinks (I had a decent Chardonnay) and pretzels. No hot towel, either. *sigh* NW sure ain't CO. The salad was adequate, better than the sandwich, but still not that great. The dressing came in a sealed plastic cup, and the salt and pepper were in paper packets. The chicken in the salad had a rather hefty chunk of fat on it, and tasted heavily processed. The chocolate ice cream (which, like my last NW lunch flight, was served on the tray at the same time as everything else) was pretty tasty. The flight attendants were quite pleasant, but they didn't keep my water glass full throughout the flight.
Cruise was as smooth as you could ask for, and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Descent was a bit choppy and we landed in light fog. The taxiing took forever to get to the gate; many passengers got impatient and started collecting luggage before we were stopped at Gate C12. In the end, the captain forgot to turn off the fasten seat belt sign until the lead FA reminded him.
Deplaning was through the forward door, which I hate on DC-10s.
Overall, this flight rates a 7. On time, but I really expect better treatment in FC than NW provides in general.
On the way out of the terminal, we stopped at the WorldClub so I could confirm an upgrade seat for companion #2 on the return flight. The club, like the rest of the terminal, was like a ghost town. 'Course, it was about 19:40, too. The agent in the club was quite pleasant and upgraded him without complaint (after I mentioned that he was on a Y-26 fare).
This was my first time in DTW. What an ugly, spread-out terminal! It has got to be the nastiest hub I've seen. NW just has this flair for behaving like an airline that doesn't plan on being around next year. This was essentially confirmed to me by a brief conversation I had with the lead FA on the flight about the equipment, and he noted that NW isn't buying any new planes other than the A320s; they're buying a whole bunch of used DC-10s and hush-kitting the 727s and DC-9s.
We got a bus to the Avis lot...it smelled like an ashtray. Ick ick ick. The car itself, a Dodge Stratus, was fine.
Residence Inn, Ann Arbor
No difficulties getting to Ann Arbor, but it was a little hard to find the Residence Inn in the fog. The place is the typical old Condo-style Residence Inn, which I prefer, though they have one new apartment-style building as well. My room was a studio on the ground floor of a building right next to the freeway. Fortunately, the room was on the side facing away from the freeway. It still was a little on the noisy side from the traffic. The toilet had a slow leak that caused repeated slow refills of the tank. Otherwise, the room was pretty much as expected. They had two phone lines, a nice first for my Residence Inn experiences. Unfortunately, I could only get about 19.2kbps on it.
Breakfast included the do-it-yourself Belgian waffles, and the fixin's for sausage/egg/cheese/english muffin sandwiches. That amounted to a slightly better than average selection compared to other previous Residence Inn experiences.
No real major surprises, good or bad, as Residence Inns go. This place rates a 7.5.
Monday, November 22, 1999
NW51 DTW-SEA
We arrived quite early for the flight, as our meeting didn't go quite as long as I thought it might. Dropping off the car was a breeze; they handed me the receipt within two minutes of arrival, and the bus to the terminal left as soon as we got on. Unlike the bus from the outbound, this one smelled fine. They dropped us off at the terminal in front of Concourse E, so we went into the WorldClub by Concourse E...noted that it was tiny, and proceeded to the one by Concourse C instead. I synchronized email, got a few things to drink, and settled in with my coworkers. Around two hours before the 19:25 flight was scheduled to leave, we checked in at the Club desk. The very nice gentleman checked all three of us in, printed out our boarding passes, and kindly forgot to ask for the certificates for my companions. So I kindly "forgot" to offer them.
Easy as can be.The Club was clean overall, and was crowded around 16:00, but for the rest of our stay there was rather empty. We hung out another 90 minutes or so, and my companions got some of the frozen yogurt while we chatted. Then we headed to Gate F9 (quite a hike from the C-concourse WorldClub).
After NW50 dropped us off at DTW, it continued on to CDG, turned around, and kindly picked us up on its way back to SEA.
Different crew, though; they don't have the same people on the domestic segments as the internationals for these flights.They began boarding through the second door about 25 minutes prior to scheduled departure. Naturally, the cabin looked exactly the same as we left it the day before. Boarding seemed to be orderly, and we were offered drinks on the ground.
The door was closed six minutes early, but we weren't able to push back until 13 minutes later. According to the captain, our pushback was delayed because the adjacent DC-9 had just pushed back a few minutes before, and hadn't gotten out of the way yet.
Taxi was inordinately long. I guess that's par for the course at DTW. We were seventh for takeoff. The takeoff and climb were smooth, as was most of the flight, though there was a bit of turbulence somewhere near Fargo.
Shortly before we reached cruise, they came by with the drinks and the peanuts/pretzels. The dinner choices were roasted chicken breast with orzo or lime-crusted trout with smoky tomato. This came with a side salad, dinner roll, and ice cream. Given my past experiences with NW food, I couldn't trust that the trout would be safe, so I opted for the chicken. The side salad, like the last one I had on NW, had moist croutons and slightly wilted lettuce. The sourdough roll was served warm, and was rather tasty. The chicken and orzo were cooked together in a ceramic dish. Overall, the presentation reminded me of coach meals on international flights. The chicken itself was interesting, coated with a bunch of herbs and spices. The orzo had an odd off-flavor of mushrooms. Unlike NW's lunch flights, the chocolate ice cream was served separately after the meal.
The FA service was a hair below that of the outbound flight.
We arrived about twenty minutes early and quickly pulled into Gate S7. They quickly hooked up the jetway, and the FAs made sure to let the first class passengers off first, a nice touch.
This flight rates a 7.5. Getting in early is always welcome...I just wish they'd provide better service in the air.
No difficulties getting out of the airport. I do love those new pay kiosks...no lines anywhere! Now that rates a 10 (or four paws up, in Catman parlance)!
------------------
Michael
OnePass Platinum
Nov 23, 1999 | 5:30 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: newton, ma USA
Posts: 71
Yes, the jostling hordes of people crowding before their row is called annoy me too. I'm not sure what gate agents can do about this, but they sure could try to wait longer between calling 1st, elites, general, etc. Otherwise, it's one big push towards the door. 
Nov 23, 1999 | 11:20 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,811
Thanks for the report, Michael. In two weeks it'll be one solid year since I've set foot on a NW aircraft. I see not much has changed. (My wife and son fly NW SEA-MSP-DCA in ten days' time, though. Burning off some miles.)
Your observation is exactly right about NW always looking like an airline that doesn't plan to be around this time next year. Both hubs and aircraft reflect a that'll-do-for-now sensibility. Problem is, NW's looked this way since about 1986.
Your observation is exactly right about NW always looking like an airline that doesn't plan to be around this time next year. Both hubs and aircraft reflect a that'll-do-for-now sensibility. Problem is, NW's looked this way since about 1986.
Nov 24, 1999 | 9:54 am
#7
In Memoriam
Join Date: May 1999
Location: PVD
Posts: 1,560
Michael:
You are soooo lucky. I went through DTW on NW ten times in the first five months of this year. The connections were so far apart that I bought a computer bag on wheels just for flights through DTW! Honestly.
Great report as usual.
You are soooo lucky. I went through DTW on NW ten times in the first five months of this year. The connections were so far apart that I bought a computer bag on wheels just for flights through DTW! Honestly.
Great report as usual.
Nov 25, 1999 | 12:09 pm
#9
In Memoriam: Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: LGB/LAX
Programs: UA 1K, SPG Plat
Posts: 1,853
dg1,
It is amazing what the airlines charge for different flights. About four times a year, I have to fly from SoCal to CRW. On US, I can fly from LAX-PIT-CRW for $410, while the same flight starting from SNA is only $350.
I have flown the LAX-DTW-CRW on NW. Got to spend 5 hours in DTW (wanted FC by using an CO Silver upgrade cert)happy, happy, joy, joy!
TravelWeary,
You are so right about walking between terminals. I really enjoyed the bus ride to my plane from the commuter terminal, stuffing 30 people into a bus that seats 10 so that we can get escorted to our SF3.
It is amazing what the airlines charge for different flights. About four times a year, I have to fly from SoCal to CRW. On US, I can fly from LAX-PIT-CRW for $410, while the same flight starting from SNA is only $350.
I have flown the LAX-DTW-CRW on NW. Got to spend 5 hours in DTW (wanted FC by using an CO Silver upgrade cert)happy, happy, joy, joy!
TravelWeary,
You are so right about walking between terminals. I really enjoyed the bus ride to my plane from the commuter terminal, stuffing 30 people into a bus that seats 10 so that we can get escorted to our SF3.
Nov 28, 1999 | 4:25 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: SFO
Programs: No status anymore. Former CO PLT, NW PLT, AS MVP
Posts: 502
TravelWeary,
We'll see just how lucky I am. I'll be going to CMH via MSP on the outbound, returning through DTW. My return has a relatively short layover...something tells me I'm going to be having a fun, six-mile trek or two.
But I'm very happy that you liked that report. Stay tuned for the next installments, which will include my Thanksgiving trip to LAS and the aforementioned CMH business trip.
We'll see just how lucky I am. I'll be going to CMH via MSP on the outbound, returning through DTW. My return has a relatively short layover...something tells me I'm going to be having a fun, six-mile trek or two.
But I'm very happy that you liked that report. Stay tuned for the next installments, which will include my Thanksgiving trip to LAS and the aforementioned CMH business trip.
Nov 28, 1999 | 8:11 pm
#11
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: See pitflyer
Posts: 1,620
Just flew out of Columbus for the first time. Decent airport. Great website if you haven't seen it: http://www.port-columbus.com
Good luck in Minneapolis. I've flown there several times and it's better than Detroit ... but that's not saying much
Good luck in Minneapolis. I've flown there several times and it's better than Detroit ... but that's not saying much
Dec 1, 1999 | 7:32 pm
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: So Fla & NYC
Programs: DL DM/2MM, UA MM, BV LT Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 23,768
My experience mirrors mweiss' description of the taxiing, service and food on his NW D10 trip DTW-SEA. However, my 19:25 flight was in early October and at that time the flight was denominated NW279. No international aircraft could possibly have been used that night. This D10 was truly one of the ancients. Everything, the seats, the flooring, the restrooms showed tremendous wear and tear. There were no center overheads in the FC cabin (excuse me, the WBC cabin) and one of the side overheads was taped shut with bright red tape with "out of order" scrawled on it. My video screen was frozen in place and could not be extracted, but my struggles were noticed by a neighbor who informed me not to bother. He knew that there would be no video service on this flight. There was however one consolation, only one of the restrooms in the front of the plane was out of order. The others worked fine.
Dec 5, 1999 | 10:34 pm
#14
Original Member, Moderator: Hotel Deals and MilesBuzz
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 14,291
I think the only airport in North America I have visited that is more disgusting than DTW has been TIJ (Tijuana, Mexico).
I do believe an entirely new terminal named Midfield Terminal is under construction right now. Larger than the entire DTW airport, this massive terminal will be the exclusive domain of NW and early reports indicate it could be the best-designed (passenger amenities) airport terminal in North America. We'll see about that. Anyway, an excellent website on this subject can be found at:
www-vrl.umich.edu/NewMidfield/
------------------
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]
[This message has been edited by MileageAddict (edited 12-05-1999).]
I do believe an entirely new terminal named Midfield Terminal is under construction right now. Larger than the entire DTW airport, this massive terminal will be the exclusive domain of NW and early reports indicate it could be the best-designed (passenger amenities) airport terminal in North America. We'll see about that. Anyway, an excellent website on this subject can be found at:
www-vrl.umich.edu/NewMidfield/
------------------
Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop
]
[This message has been edited by MileageAddict (edited 12-05-1999).]