Quick Q: Northwest or American?

[rpadula]

Hey everyone,

I'm helping a friend book a flight for her son from LSE (La Crosse, WI) to ATL in mid-January. The choices are NWA (through Minneapolis) or AA (through Chicago).

Any opinions on which one is better? Which one is more likely to cause connection problems?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Bob Noel]

Chicago in January for a connection? bleeech. In general I'd avoid Chicago in the winter.

 

[kevin47881]

I'd just avoid Chicago altogether (unless flying with Greg on United of course ).

 

[wsuffa]

Going through MSP will give more FF miles What airline do they collect miles on?

Frankly, neither is a great choice in winter, but IME Minneapolis does a bit better than Chicago with operations when weather is down. I would probably choose MSP, but YMMV.

 

[rpadula]

Going through MSP will give more FF miles What airline do they collect miles on?

Heh. Neither, really. Nobody travels enough to do anything with FF miles...

Frankly, neither is a great choice in winter, but IME Minneapolis does a bit better than Chicago with operations when weather is down. I would probably choose MSP, but YMMV.

I know we can't depend on the weather, but was wondering who had better operations and/or less bottleneck constraints when the tough get going.

Minneapolis would've been my guess too. Plus, I swore I'd never go to Chicago after they plowed Meigs under.

 

[wsuffa]

Heh. Neither, really. Nobody travels enough to do anything with FF miles...

Oh, Rich, don't you know: it's ALL about the miles.... Why do you think I use an airline credit card to buy avgas for the Commander?

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I get to go through both on business trips. I'd choose KMSP over KORD. I'm assuming AA doesn't fly through KMDW- I never flew through Midway so I won't comment on it.

 

[jmaynard]

MSP is my home commercial airport. They've got the winter weather thing down. NW might have connection problems, but it'll be because they can't get the airplane into LSE, or out of wherever it came from last. In general, I've had good results flying with them.

 

[Ghery]

The only problem with NW is that they are the largest unscheduled airline in the world. Took them 30 years before they got me somewhere on time, and to this day the only place to or from on time has been Hawaii. On the other hand, ORD in the winter???

 

[catmandu]

Double whammy possibility with AA, as a winter event in DFW could trickle through the system. I'd go NW, and I love AA!

But, you roll the dice, you take your chances: the NW pilots could walk out due to a dispute around the DL 'merger'.

Best bet: buy a lotto ticket, win, schedule your own G450 to suit your needs.:smile:

 

[wsuffa]

But, you roll the dice, you take your chances: the NW pilots could walk out

Good point. It's mid-month Jan, though, so they're not likely to time-out (last year, NW canceled thousands of flights at month-end due to time-out on the pilots). The DL deal is a whole 'nother story, but I'd expect the problems later in the year when leverage is higher.

 

[rpadula]

Thanks everyone!

Rolled the dice and went with NWA. I hope their flights are better than their web site. Had to call the customer service agent to actually book the flights that were showing on the screen. Guess their Web front end doesn't talk to their back end system so well...

Will be purchasing a Mega Millions ticket tomorrow, just in case for that G450

 

[wsuffa]

Thanks everyone!

Rolled the dice and went with NWA. I hope their flights are better than their web site. Had to call the customer service agent to actually book the flights that were showing on the screen. Guess their Web front end doesn't talk to their back end system so well...

Must have adopted the Delta IT system....

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Must have adopted the Delta IT system....

The two aren't quite hooked up right yet - A couple of weeks ago, I booked a ticket online. It was a "Northwest" flight, but it sent me through Delta's web site. Actually, the first leg was Pinnacle, 2nd was Northwest. Got to the airport, and the Delta check-in kiosk recognized that I had booked the flight but said it was a Northwest flight so I'd have to check in with Northwest. The Northwest kiosk didn't recognize that I had a flight booked at all. Northwest counter didn't, either. So we went to the Delta counter (same agent ) and he punched me up on the computer. It showed up but wouldn't let me check in - "Go to Northwest." I ended up having to call an 800 number and they gave me some funky code that the agent punched into both computers (Delta: no luck, Northwest: Success, finally!)

Glad I wasn't running late!

Even so, I'd definitely go through MSP over ORD, no matter what time of year it is. I've never heard a Northwest (or Mesaba, for that matter) flight get delayed out of MSN (they go to both DTW and MSP from here), but it is not at all uncommon to be on the Ground frequency here and hear "Eagle flight 1234, taxi to the north holding bay, expect your release in 1 hour, 54 minutes." And that's for a flight that lasts all of 20 minutes to ORD!