NW: ORF-DTW-LAS-DTW-ORF in First (Boring??)
May 14, 2002, 5:42 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Va Beach, Va, USA
Posts: 244
NW: ORF-DTW-LAS-DTW-ORF in First (Boring??)
Just a family vacation from ORF (Norfolk) to LAS.
NW online check in:
Did the check in the night before online, so I was hoping to be hassle free at the airport the next morning. That was not going to be the case! Arrived at ORF 1.5 hours early. The curb side guys said that their "computers were down" and we had to go inside to do the baggage.
Security in ORF:
In ORF, they are doing a 100% bag search -- all checked and carry on luggage. When they do the search, they take a swab of some sort and then wipe down every "section" of the luggage. They also open every small bag/compartment within as well, so they opened the toilet kits, garment bags, etc. They then take the cloth and it goes into this bomb sniffer I assume. On the screen, it has a display that has readings for TNT, Nitro, etc. on it.
Flight 1455 ORF-DTW:
Went to gate and boarded early. Once on board, we were offered pre-flight drinks, which I declined. Flight attendants on this flight were very cheerful and helpful. Took off pretty much on time. Only food offered on the flight was some pretzels & some sort of yogurt covered granola bar -- it tasted horrible IMHO.
Arrived in DTW and took tram to the opposite end of the airport.
Flight 1199 DTW-LAS:
Arrived 35 minutes early at the gate and was starving. I heard mixed reports on the food situation on this flight on the NW board, so I decided to try to find something to eat. The gate agent said they were going to start boarding in 5 minutes. Went to some hot dog shop that didn't have a name yet above it. Seems like we had to go a long way to find some place to get food though... Maybe it was just my imagination, but DTW could use more fast food concessions. One other note, the people working the food service were extremely slow! They have 4 people working back there and it takes 3-5 minutes per person in line?! How long does it take to give someone a chili-dog, chips, & make change?? There were about 5 people in line before me and I waited at least 15-20 minutes.
Got back to gate and boarded immediately. FA offered a pre-flight drink, but warned that he might not have everything on hand since they hadn't been catered yet. My companion took a jack & pepsi, I just had water. We ended up taking off about 45 minutes late due to the lack of tugs to push us back from the gate.
No IFE but food was a surprise on this flight... We had some sort meat platter that included cuts of pepperoni, salami, turkey, ham, & cheese. It was served on a tablecloth covered tray with silverware (plastic knife), wine glass, extra-virgin olive oil, diced peppers & onions, chocolate cheesecake, and a warm roll. Wine was offered with the "meal" as well. Flight attendants on this flight were very cheerful and helpful.
About 2/3 way through the flight, the lead FA announced that two couples were on their way to be married in Vegas and needed to be married by Elvis. But just in case they couldn't find him, he proceeded to sing an Elvis tune over the PA dedicated to them. He had a pretty good voice and everyone cheered & clapped after he finished!
Flight 68 LAS-DTW:
After blowing all my winnings on my last day at the strip, we were ready to head home. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early, mostly due to family members flying out an hour earlier than us on their chartered trip. So, we checked baggage at the curb, went inside and got boarding passes, and sailed through security with no wait at all at 7am. Ended up eating half a roll at cinnabon in the D concourse food court.
Boarded and did not push back on time after a mechanic came up to the cockpit to inform the pilot of a problem. Luckily the last thing I heard him say was "its nothing serious, and you'll be out of here in a few minutes." We took off about 20 minutes late.
The FAs on this flight were a bit off their game. No pre-flight drinks offered, and two of them in particular seemed more interested in stuffing their faces and chatting than working.
There was no IFE, but food was decent. Had a choice of the following:
- scrambled eggs, sausage, & potatoes or Special K & banana
and
- bagel or warmed blue-berry crumb cake
and
- fruit plate
I took the eggs & crumb cake. Everything was great except the eggs. They tasted a bit overcooked and as if they had been "sitting" a while. I ate them anyways
.
One note, I think this was one of NW's new 757s. It had that "new plane smell" and looked freshly painted. Everything outside looked shiny and clean, including the landing gear, doors, bathrooms. Perhaps it was just reconfigured, but I think it was new. Is there anyway I can find out?
Flight 1454 DTW-ORF:
After an extremely LONG taxi after landing (seems like we circled the entire airport!), arrived about 10 minutes late to the gate. Went to next gate, boarded, and again, no pre-flight drinks offered due to lack of catering. Everyone was seated & ready to go, but the food service took forever to get to us. The FAs were nice and friendly, but also added to our delay. They were extremely concerned about their breakfast "crew meals" for the next day. They check all of the food bins as they were loaded and wanted to know why there were no crew meals in them? After about 10 minutes of checking, they were informed that this plane was going back to DTW that night and that a later flight to ORF that night was staying overnight and would have their beloved breakfast crew meals for them.
We did a "power push back" without a tug and took off about 45 minutes late. The flight was uneventful and we landed about 30 to 40 minutes late.
Overall, it was a fun trip. I think NW still has some bugs to work out in DTW regarding their tugs and catering. DTW needs to add more runway access to avoid the long outside tour of the new terminal.
NW online check in:
Did the check in the night before online, so I was hoping to be hassle free at the airport the next morning. That was not going to be the case! Arrived at ORF 1.5 hours early. The curb side guys said that their "computers were down" and we had to go inside to do the baggage.
Security in ORF:
In ORF, they are doing a 100% bag search -- all checked and carry on luggage. When they do the search, they take a swab of some sort and then wipe down every "section" of the luggage. They also open every small bag/compartment within as well, so they opened the toilet kits, garment bags, etc. They then take the cloth and it goes into this bomb sniffer I assume. On the screen, it has a display that has readings for TNT, Nitro, etc. on it.
Flight 1455 ORF-DTW:
Went to gate and boarded early. Once on board, we were offered pre-flight drinks, which I declined. Flight attendants on this flight were very cheerful and helpful. Took off pretty much on time. Only food offered on the flight was some pretzels & some sort of yogurt covered granola bar -- it tasted horrible IMHO.
Arrived in DTW and took tram to the opposite end of the airport.
Flight 1199 DTW-LAS:
Arrived 35 minutes early at the gate and was starving. I heard mixed reports on the food situation on this flight on the NW board, so I decided to try to find something to eat. The gate agent said they were going to start boarding in 5 minutes. Went to some hot dog shop that didn't have a name yet above it. Seems like we had to go a long way to find some place to get food though... Maybe it was just my imagination, but DTW could use more fast food concessions. One other note, the people working the food service were extremely slow! They have 4 people working back there and it takes 3-5 minutes per person in line?! How long does it take to give someone a chili-dog, chips, & make change?? There were about 5 people in line before me and I waited at least 15-20 minutes.
Got back to gate and boarded immediately. FA offered a pre-flight drink, but warned that he might not have everything on hand since they hadn't been catered yet. My companion took a jack & pepsi, I just had water. We ended up taking off about 45 minutes late due to the lack of tugs to push us back from the gate.
No IFE but food was a surprise on this flight... We had some sort meat platter that included cuts of pepperoni, salami, turkey, ham, & cheese. It was served on a tablecloth covered tray with silverware (plastic knife), wine glass, extra-virgin olive oil, diced peppers & onions, chocolate cheesecake, and a warm roll. Wine was offered with the "meal" as well. Flight attendants on this flight were very cheerful and helpful.
About 2/3 way through the flight, the lead FA announced that two couples were on their way to be married in Vegas and needed to be married by Elvis. But just in case they couldn't find him, he proceeded to sing an Elvis tune over the PA dedicated to them. He had a pretty good voice and everyone cheered & clapped after he finished!
Flight 68 LAS-DTW:
After blowing all my winnings on my last day at the strip, we were ready to head home. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early, mostly due to family members flying out an hour earlier than us on their chartered trip. So, we checked baggage at the curb, went inside and got boarding passes, and sailed through security with no wait at all at 7am. Ended up eating half a roll at cinnabon in the D concourse food court.
Boarded and did not push back on time after a mechanic came up to the cockpit to inform the pilot of a problem. Luckily the last thing I heard him say was "its nothing serious, and you'll be out of here in a few minutes." We took off about 20 minutes late.
The FAs on this flight were a bit off their game. No pre-flight drinks offered, and two of them in particular seemed more interested in stuffing their faces and chatting than working.
There was no IFE, but food was decent. Had a choice of the following:
- scrambled eggs, sausage, & potatoes or Special K & banana
and
- bagel or warmed blue-berry crumb cake
and
- fruit plate
I took the eggs & crumb cake. Everything was great except the eggs. They tasted a bit overcooked and as if they had been "sitting" a while. I ate them anyways
.One note, I think this was one of NW's new 757s. It had that "new plane smell" and looked freshly painted. Everything outside looked shiny and clean, including the landing gear, doors, bathrooms. Perhaps it was just reconfigured, but I think it was new. Is there anyway I can find out?
Flight 1454 DTW-ORF:
After an extremely LONG taxi after landing (seems like we circled the entire airport!), arrived about 10 minutes late to the gate. Went to next gate, boarded, and again, no pre-flight drinks offered due to lack of catering. Everyone was seated & ready to go, but the food service took forever to get to us. The FAs were nice and friendly, but also added to our delay. They were extremely concerned about their breakfast "crew meals" for the next day. They check all of the food bins as they were loaded and wanted to know why there were no crew meals in them? After about 10 minutes of checking, they were informed that this plane was going back to DTW that night and that a later flight to ORF that night was staying overnight and would have their beloved breakfast crew meals for them.
We did a "power push back" without a tug and took off about 45 minutes late. The flight was uneventful and we landed about 30 to 40 minutes late.
Overall, it was a fun trip. I think NW still has some bugs to work out in DTW regarding their tugs and catering. DTW needs to add more runway access to avoid the long outside tour of the new terminal.
May 14, 2002, 8:55 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,576
Actually the reason for the long taxi is because landings occur on the outter runways. To avoid the dangers of rwy incursions like at LAX and to keep the departures flowing off the inner runways the taxiways take you all the way around the runways which make for a long taxi. Runway access is actually a lot better and there are a ton of taxiways to get to and from the terminal without having to wait for much traffic. The facility is still 2.5 months old and is vasty improving with the bugs... but it will be a little bit before everything is working 100% like a well oiled machine.
The only way you could have known if you were indeed on a new 757 was to look at the ship #.
AZJ
AZJ
The only way you could have known if you were indeed on a new 757 was to look at the ship #.
AZJ
AZJ
May 14, 2002, 10:29 pm
#3
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: 36,000'
Posts: 1,206
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mat123:
They were extremely concerned about their breakfast "crew meals" for the next day. They check all of the food bins as they were loaded and wanted to know why there were no crew meals in them? After about 10 minutes of checking, they were informed that this plane was going back to DTW that night and that a later flight to ORF that night was staying overnight and would have their beloved breakfast crew meals for them.
</font>
They were extremely concerned about their breakfast "crew meals" for the next day. They check all of the food bins as they were loaded and wanted to know why there were no crew meals in them? After about 10 minutes of checking, they were informed that this plane was going back to DTW that night and that a later flight to ORF that night was staying overnight and would have their beloved breakfast crew meals for them.
</font>
to the east coast a couple of weeks ago and the same darn thing happened. It really ticked me off. There were only 2 of us in F, we both pre-boarded and sat there while the 3 FAs completely ignored us and loudly rambled on about their crew meals: what kind of crew meals they liked, which ones they didn't like, what they were having for dinner on this flight, how anyone could have "my crew meal because I'm not eating it tonight I just can't eat another crew meal today," how we should put the milk on ice so it would be cold for the flight out in the morning, yada yada yada... It really was disturbing, I'm thinking these FAs were forced to gate check their brains. It is a very good thing that that is a rarity on NW--but it should never happen. 
May 15, 2002, 6:00 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Va Beach, Va, USA
Posts: 244
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by azj:
The only way you could have known if you were indeed on a new 757 was to look at the ship #.
</font>
The only way you could have known if you were indeed on a new 757 was to look at the ship #.
</font>
May 15, 2002, 10:24 pm
#5
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,576
Yup, that helps. Ship #5509 (N509US) was the 9th 757 delivered new to NW on 10/04/85. She was the 70th off the production line. She was also the former "City of Anchorage" as NW named them after cities they served. Not the newest bird, but well maintained. The 5500 series 757s recently received an interior facelift to match their sister ships, the 5600 series (the ones with the 4 overwing exits). Gone are the brown walls and brown carpeting... in with the new clean looking white walls and lighting.
This info is courtesy of the aweome Bill Harms fleet website.
Link:
http://www.bird.ch/bharms/asr_sh00.htm
Hope this helps...
AZJ
This info is courtesy of the aweome Bill Harms fleet website.
Link:
http://www.bird.ch/bharms/asr_sh00.htm
Hope this helps...
AZJ