Growing up in the Detroit Metro Area, KDTW was my gateway to the world (literally). I’m sure most of you know that it is a fortress hub for Delta, but before Delta, there was Northwest Airlines.
My first time ever on an airplane was a Northwest flight between DTW-TPA. I can’t remember if it was a 757 or an A320, but I really marveled at the plane I was on. This experience began my affinity towards aviation and admiration of Northwest. I remembered Northwest’s above and beyond customer service and nice amenities for the time. The people at that airline really seemed to care and it made a lot of difference as a traveler. For example, on a later flight, a Northwest captain once let me program the MCDU (with his help of course) when I was in my teens (and they let me stay with them for the entire pre-flight flows prior to pushback). This was a really inspiring experience for me.
Northwest was a great airline in my opinion and I am glad I got to fly with them multiple times. Delta and Northwest merged in 2009 and that was unfortunately the end of Northwest as I knew it. I won’t comment on my thoughts on Delta, but what I will say is that most of the Northwest flight crew I have met in recent years seemed to be nostalgic when speaking about the past at Northwest, and I think that speaks volumes to the legacy of that carrier.
Do you have any stories of flying for the first time or with certain historical airlines?
I remember the last time I flew on an Alaska Q400. It was about a year ago operating service to Seattle from Vancouver, a nice 30 minute flight with a cruising altitude of 16,000 feet. It’s just sad that they are retired now :(
My 1st flight was either LAN ( now LATAM ) or Avianca from Miami to Cali, Colombia can’t remember if it was nonstop I think we went MIA → CLO via BOG and can’t remember the aircraft type and the only airline thats now defunct i’ve flown was VivaAir, A Colombian ULCC which ceased at the end of Feb 2023 from CLO → ADZ and back.
I never was able to fly with Northwest before Delta bought them out, but I did fly on a DAL 757-200 back in 2007 while it still wore its old Song livery from JFK to Salt Lake City. The interior was the same way, too! I was a kid back then, but the lime-green and white paint scheme always stuck out to me in a good way whenever my dad would take me spotting :)
I re-read my post this morning and I figured my tone on Delta might be a bit snobby. I think Delta is a good airline with good people, I just remember Northwest offering an experience that was just a bit more special. That’s why I mainly fly Spirit or Southwest out of DTW these days because Spirit is just way cheaper (I almost never fly with bags) and Southwest still has that brand identity they’ve had for decades (efficiency, friendly service, and value). Delta seems to have lost their touch that’s all; that’s okay, things change and that allows an opportunity for them to become a better airline in the future.
Yeah still here in MSP—I usually try to stick with Delta to keep my Gold status, but nowadays they’re often just way too overpriced to make sense so then I’ll usually go Sun Country, JetBlue, or United. (I might actually reach United status this year haha)
I fly between MSP and Houston a lot as well as MSP and Boston. After those, my most common is MSP-AMS because I always try to connect there for international flights. Used to be the NW DC-10s a lot then it switched to the A330s being more common.
However, now I almost always try to get the KLM flight instead of the Delta one if I’m going through Amsterdam because they give free/discounted extra legroom seats and have much more reasonably priced business class upgrades (ex: I upgraded my KLM MSP-AMS flight for $500 at the gate, Delta would have charged $2800)
My first time on an airplane was when I was 2 and was flying from Kuopio to Helsinki since my mom gave birth to me at a very young age and decided to move where I currently live now - Vilnius, Lithuania!
I remember flying with Air Berlin, Alitalia, and Virgin America. All were pretty nice flights. I still remember traveling from LAX to ICT directly. Sadly, that route is no longer offered/in service. I also recall walking through the old Mid Continent Airport terminal at ICT. But best of all was LAX. I went up into the Encounter restaurant. It was incredible. This was also back when you could see the planes when driving around the airport drop off/ pick up areas.
I don’t remember when my first flight was, but it was with Southwest and I was an infant.
I flew a lot with my mother on Southwest, and I vaguely remember flying on a Canyon Blue plane, but the memory is too old to recall if it was a -300/400 winglet or a -700 winglet. I probably flew on both variants considering this was over 10 years ago. My mother said the flight attendants were really nice and would hold me when she went to the bathroom. The flight attendants are still very nice to this day.
Southwest is by far my favorite airline.
I remember my flight flight was on a Korean Air 747-400 from Los Angeles to Seoul I believe. It was either that, or it was actually an A380 on the way there and a 747 on the way back