Delta or Northwest?

[Flaxbee]

Are they both horrible? Is one less horrible than the other? I need to get to Europe (Finland) this December for business, and the nearest big airport for me to fly out of is Atlanta... I'd like to fly a foreign carrier all the way, but am not sure who to try.

And I'd rather not fly up to NY/NJ to get out; I'd like to go straight from Atlanta into Europe on the most economical flight possible.

Hell I miss good travel agents! Can anyone recommend one?

Any other suggestions?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Both are good, safe airlines.

They are also both part of a codeshare agreement called Skyteam. So you can book a flight on one of them and end up actually flying on the other, or, for that matter, KLM or Air France. But if it matters to you, Delta donates a lot of money to Republicans; Northwest tends to favor Democrats. On edit: According to followyourmoney.com, 60% of Delta's political contributions went to Republicans; 55% of Northwest's went to Democrats.

[no name no slogan]

21. There's more to those numbers than meets the eye

Northwest is based in Eagan, MN, a suburb of Mpls/St Paul. Northwest has a long history of being bailed out and rescued by the state, most notably under DFL (Democratic) administrations. As the DFL has controlled the lion's share of the state government in MN over the past 30 years, it only follows that most of their contributions have gone to Democrats.

Just because they contribute more to Democrats doesn't necessarily mean the agree with them-- they're just looking to buy votes, like the rest of the corporations.

A former Northwest CEO, Al Checci, once ran for governor of California as a Democrat. But that doesn't mean he was a good guy. This is the same guy who hit up the state of MN for a bailout in the late 80s, and later fled the company after getting a payout in the $100mil range. All this for guiding the airline to near-bankruptcy.

Checci took his windfall and blew it on a huge primary race, which he thankfully lost. He may have had the D after his name, but that didn't make him any good.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. True. Checchi was a douchebag, no question...

But still, I tend to prefer Democratic douchebags to Republican douchebags if I have to choose.

[yvr girl]

2. They've both lost my luggage. n/t

[Left Is Write]

3. I don't like to fly anymore, but

when I have and when I do, I almost always fly Northwest.

[No Mandate Here.]

4. Northwest code shares with KLM, which is good.

Check 'em out. If you have a long enough layover in Minneapolis, take the shuttle to the Mall of America. There are a gazillion stores (actually over 500, and an indoor amusement park.

[russian33]

5. I always fly Delta, including internationally

Flown it to Russia number of times, and always fly it in US, and never had any problems with them.

[Modem Butterfly]

6. My partner is an extremely frequent flyer

He says from Atlanta (where we live) you could go from ATL to Amersterdam and from there, Finland on KLM. You could also fly to Paris and take Air France. You could also fly to Prague and take CSA Czech. There's also going directly to Frankfurt and taking Lufthansa. One additional possibility (not sure if this would work), if Delta goes to Copenhagen, you could take SAS. He says if he were doig it, he would go Atlanta to JFK to Helsinki via Finair, just for simplicity's sake. Just one domestic stop and one direct flight. he doubts there's a direct flight from anywhere else to Finland.

My partner is an elite flyr with both airlines and says it's really six of one half a dozen the other as far as horribleness goes. If you can, fly first class.

[Eurobabe]

7. Delta

Delta flies direct to several cities in Germany from Atlanta, like Stuttgart and Hamburg, plus Frankfurt, etc. (edit, sorry I just sawa the Finland end destination) you can catch other airlines once in Germany to Finland.

http://www.delta.com/travel/plan/destination_maps/western_europe/index.jsp

[Misunderestimator]

8. I prefer Delta to all the others

They are almost always on time, and it's the only airline where I can get a non-stop flight coast-to-coast to see NSMA :) and cheaper than the others with layovers. (And I swear I don't work for Delta.)

[kitkatrose]

9. Really?

That's about the opposite experience I've had with them. Northwest is always cheaper than Delta and this is coming out of National or Baltimore. Plus they're the only ones that have nonstop to Memphis.

[Misunderestimator]

11. I guess it all depends on where you live... and where their hubs are.

[kitkatrose]

12. Yeah,

Northwest hubs in Memphis. Which is good. :) How are you and NMSA? I hope ya'll are doing well.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

14. We're doing well..Misunderestimator meets the "inlaws" on Thanksgiving

day...hope she isn't put off when she figures out she's joining the Addams Family *snap snap*

[Misunderestimator]

19. I always WANTED to be part of that family!

:)

[Misunderestimator]

17. Better than well... couldn't be better ...

thanks for asking :)

[Bluebear]

10. Northwest is union, Delta is not

if that makes any difference :)

[DemoTex]

15. Look for the union label. Actually, pilots at both are unionized (ALPA).

Air Line Pilots Association (AFL-CIO)

[Bluebear]

18. Indeed. Flight attendants are not.

[no name no slogan]

16. They're rotten corporate citizens. They're "NorthWorst" for a reason.

Living in Minneapolis (one of NWA's three hubs), I can tell you that they mistreat their union workers-- giving them huge pay cuts, while the executives walk off with the money.

Minnesota has bailed this sorry excuse for an airline out a couple times, keeping it out of bankruptcy. We've also paid tons of our tax dollars to NWA to create new, good-paying jobs which have either 1) never materialized, or 2) been created-- overseas.

NWA may be union, but it's not because they want to be. They would do damn near anything to de-unionize the airline. Their (mis)management continues to drive the company into the ground, while giving themselves huge bonuses and freezing workers wages, under the threat of bankruptcy.

They've abused their employees good will, the taxpayers of Minnesota, and countless others in their greed. Good corporate citizens, they ain't.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Unfortunately all of the airlines are in that very same boat.

Delta's pilots just took it in the shorts even worse than Northwest's -- they just took a 32% pay cut for 5 years (NWA took a 15% cut for 2 years). And last year American Airlines' CEO was forced to quit after he conned that airline's unions into agreeing to a major screwing while concealing the fact that the execs were getting huge bonuses. This sort of thing is the norm in the industry and is not unique to any particular airline. Everybody is getting hosed.

[DemoTex]

13. As a retired airline captain, I would fly either in a heartbeat.

However, minimize the hassle. If you are within driving distance of Atlanta, take a non-stop. International connections are fraught with peril.

On closer inspection, it looks like all of Delta's flights to Helsinki connect through JFK or Prague. I don't see a non-stop Finnair flight from Atlanta, either. Northwest might be a better choice if they have a non-stop to Helsinki.

If you chose to fly Delta with a connection through JFK, DO NOT LET THEM ROUTE YOU THROUGH LGA. That would involve a long, expensive, and time consuming cab ride between LGA and JFK. ATL-JFK-HEL would not be that bad.

I had the good fortune to travel to Sweden on business in mid-December 1991. The extremely short days (6-7 hours) and seasonal lighting and music made it a very special and memorable experience. I actually had dinner with King Gustav (a Salman Rushdie look-a-like) and Queen Sophia in Linkoping, Sweden. It was a small, cozy get together with the King, Queen, me, and about 600 others.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. KLM will get you there.

You can go from ATL to Amsterdam, change planes there and fly to Helsinki, also on KLM. You can probably book through either Northwest or Delta since all 3 airlines are part of the Skyteam alliance. This might be your best bet because you don't have to change planes at either JFK or (shudder) LGA.

[DemoTex]

26. There is no plane change at LGA for an international flight ...

Unless that flight is to Canada or Bermuda. If they route you through LGA for a JFK-XXX flight, you are screwed. Time-wise and money-wise.

[St. Jarvitude]

22. I copycatted your thread

Sorry, I have no advice as the only airlines I've flown are United, American (once), and Lufthansa (best of the three).

[donheld]

25. I'd let you borrow my broom

but i'm it then using it then

[YellowRubberDuckie]

27. Delta's good...

And think about it. You just might get John Travolta as a pilot sometime.
I think that's the airline he flies for when he gets the urge.
Duckie

[Flaxbee]

28. Thanks for all the input everyone!

Looks like "expense-wise", it'll be Delta into Europe somewhere and then on to Helsinki... unfortunately it'll be a coach trip (argh) all the more miserable for my husband who's 6'4". Oh well.

Glad to hear other frequent fliers and pilots give Delta and NW the thumbs-up. Though at least one poster verified what my aunt, who used to be a travel agent until that business went bust (and we don't talk anymore b/c she's a fundie) said, which was that all travel agents called NW "Northworst".