This page is
travelers going to/from south-east Michigan (Detroit, Flint, Toledo) and anyone
buying Northwest Airlines tickets
Links: Detroit's Metro
Airport
Flint's Bishop Airport Toledo Airport
You must check prices from Flint if you live north of 12 Mile
Road!!
You must check prices from Toledo if you live south of 8 Mile
Road!!
Hot News:
Effective
Date
My opinion: Northwest is a very aggressive
airline. They take advantage of weakness (real or perceived) of any
competitor and respond to all threatening moves. They are the "big
dog" in the neighborhood.
Huge savings for business travelers are
available if you depart from Flint even if you connect at Detroit Metro. The best way to find prices to/from
near-by airports is to use Kayak or ITASoftware.
Northwest Frequent Flyer seats to Tampa
and Orlando may be more easily available without using "rule buster" if you
depart from Flint. Northwest has one non-stop flight to/from each city
every day.
Having trouble redeeming Northwest
WorldPerks miles for a ticket without using double miles? Well,
you're not alone. Northwest comes in LAST when it comes to redemption.
Here is a link from
WebFlyer
that compares the ease of redemption of different frequent flyer programs.
Trivia contest for Detroit Metro flyers:
can you name the cities that are served by non-stop flights operated by
airlines other than Northwest (excluding charters)? Answer at
the bottom of this page.
TIPS:
How to get the lowest price from the Northwest
Airlines web site.
Lower priced connections are not shown:
Try Detroit to Minneapolis or Detroit to
Sioux Falls on the NWA web
site and then try it on Orbitz or any other major web site. The other
sites
will show that you can save if you connect via Chicago Midway while still
flying
Northwest. You can force NWA.com to price and route that way if you do a
"multi-city" inquiry from the "more options" page.
Solution: shop at other sites first and then force NWA
to make low priced connections via their "multi city" option.
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Security shortcut at Metro Airport.
When security lines are at least 10 minutes long, go through the Westin
Hotel's lobby to the secret security check point. It's about an eight minute
walk. The hotel entrance is on the very south end (left as you face the
terminal) of the ticketing or departure drop-off level. Walk through a
long hallway, jog right and take an escalator down, angle right toward the
hotel's check-in desk and continue to the security check point.
What's wrong with this picture? Answer
at the bottom of the page.
Northwest has been told by the hotel not to send their customers through
the hotel. However, it's public property and your tax dollars are paying
the TSA screeners. Westin should use the foot traffic as an opportunity
to promote their hotel.
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A NW 'bump coupon' is not an unrestricted 'free' ticket?
The
fine print on a Northwest denied boarding (bump) coupon says that it's a "W
class" ticket. W class is Frequent Flyer class but they waive the
Saturday night stay requirement. Before you accept a bump voucher, ask
if it is in frequent flyer class. If it is, only you can determine how
easy it is to claim a frequent flyer ticket on the airline and decide to
accept or not. The gate agent described it as a "free ticket
anywhere within the US (48 states), Canada, etc. that NW flies."
That's not the case at all. It should be called a frequent flyer ticket.
Lesson here: if offered a 'bump coupon,' ask for a voucher good for $
instead. A $ voucher applies to a ticket that will qualify for frequent
flyer miles as well, a frequent flyer coupon does not.
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Trivia question answers: Amman, Jordan (Royal
Jordanian); Atlantic City (Spirit); St. Petersburg (USA3000)
What's wrong with this picture? The
picture shows a Saab 340 turbo prop plane departing from the east side of the "A" wing of the
airport. Saabs are flown by Northwest Airlink partner Mesaba and only
use the even side of "A" wing when dropping-off passengers for customs,
otherwise they are at the "B" and "C" wings.
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