Tips and Feedback from the NWA\KLM cheap USA fares

blindman · 4 September 2008 at 10:57AM

Now that the dust has settled it seems that the recent cheap fares have been ticketed and will be honoured, I thought it may be a good idea to start a thread that is for those lucky MSE's who are travelling cheaply to the US with NWA\KML etc.

This would help keep in one place questions specific to the US journeys and the respective airlines etc.
Something similar was done with the Hong Kong cheap BA flights a few years back

The general idea would be to Feedback and ask questions on stuff like:

Travelling with the airlines,
Any problems with NWA \KLM\ AirFrance etc that can be avoided?
Any tips when checking in (If you get an upgrade,[IMHO very unlikely] then specifically state how….)
Stoneman's NWA seating tip
Can you check-in online?
How many bags are you allowed?
Feedback on airline customer care\food onboard?
Getting To and From the airports.

Destination
Where are you staying? Was it any good?
What will you be doing?
Read virtualtourist for insider tips and reviews and also Tripadvisor forums and IgoUgo

Moneysaving tips
Sign up to American mailings to receive money off coupons safeway and CouponSurfer Thanks to Merlinormartin

Useful links

Travel Board Index A good "catch all" page of links and FAQ's

Murphys Nevada\Cal\Arizona thread Recentish long thread with good tips etc.

(If) When I get replies I'll add the tips etc to this first post so that it can be easily found.

Any suggestions as to how to improve this are welcome. If it's not popular then so be it.

blindman · 4 September 2008 at 11:06AM

My Flights
May 28th LHR-MSP (Minnesota St Paul) with NWA
MSP -SFO (San Francisco) with NWA

June 11th LAX-LHR with AF

Seating: Used SeatGuru for hints\tips
NWA only allocate seats 90 days out so can't do that yet.:
Luggage allowance
On-line check in 24hours to up to 60 minutes before flight. (international).
AF Have selected seats already from the AF web-site.
Luggage Allowance
On-line check in Up to 30 hours before: Closes 60 minutes prior to flight

Note Used the information from expedia Itinerary to find the references for the trip
Expedia.com.au itinerary number: 104xxxxxxx Gets me to to Itinerary on Expedia
Airline ticket number(s): 012-xxxxxxxxxx, 012-xxxxxxxxxx Can be used on the Airfrance web-site to get to the itinerary.
This is the E-ticket and is your ticket to fly!.

Northwest Airlines confirmation code: Nxxxxx Can be used at NWA.com to see the Itinerary and select seats (select "search by Confirmation #"
Air France confirmation code: 2xxxxx Strangely enough this ref did not work on the Airfrance web-site I had to use the 13 digit ref instead.
From the Airfrance website and the 13 digit ref number I could not select seats unless I clicked on the Headline paragraph

Your reservation cannot be completed in this country, please click here, if you wish to make changes to your reservation.

which takes me to another similar page.

Accommodation:
No surprise I'll be using Priceline or Hotwire for most of the trip where possible.

Destination.
Planning to go to Yosemite and Sequoia NP

Will be looking at Roadtrip America for good routes

merlinormartin · 4 September 2008 at 11:42AM

My Flights
May 25th LHR-MSP (Minnesota St Paul) with NWA
MSP - LAX (Los Angeles) with NWA

June 3rd LAX-DTW(Detroit) with NWA
DTW - LHR with NWA

plan to book heathrow travelodge for the 24th May but still working out the best way to get from Liverpool -> heathrow travlodge without car.

Seating
Traveling with 6f6" male so plan to use seatguru to find best seat.

Accomodation

Budget accomodation using fatwallet, priceline and Travelzoo.

will be reading reccomendations from MSE vegas thread and blindmans bidding advice

Destination
Los Angeles for 2/3 days then vegas.

Will either be using Amtrak train or private carhire depending upon schedule

Tips
Sign up to american mailings to recieve money off coupons safeway and CouponSurfer
Read virtualtourist for insider tips and reviews.

Gina · 4 September 2008 at 11:44AM

I'm flying to Vegas in March going with NWA and returning with Air France (although it says this flight is operated by Delta). You said you've already selected seats for AF but I don't seem to be able to. Do you know if this is because it's only AF on the way back?
Sorry if I'm being stupid, thanks for your help.

blindman · 4 September 2008 at 11:56AM

Gina wrote: »

I'm flying to Vegas in March going with NWA and returning with Air France (although it says this flight is operated by Delta). You said you've already selected seats for AF but I don't seem to be able to. Do you know if this is because it's only AF on the way back?
Sorry if I'm being stupid, thanks for your help.

So its'

March XXX-LAS with NWA (direct?)
?? LAS- XXX with Delta (codeshare with AF)

With very little detail I can't really say why you can't select seats.

Sugarplumfairy_2 · 4 September 2008 at 12:48PM

Glasgow - Nyc via Ams 14 October

5 nights at Pan American Hotel .... booked direct with hotel .

Would have saved £10 odds if booked through a site but no payment required from hotel direct until arrival. So if in the event that the flights were cancelled then I wouldnt lose anything on the hotel.

Gina · 4 September 2008 at 1:20PM

I tried that before as well and it didn't work, maybe I'll just have to wait a little while. Thanks for all your help.

stoneman · 4 September 2008 at 2:35PM

I think we have to say a very big thank you to NWA for honoring these very cheap tickets. they could have washed their hands of it my saying there was an error in the matrix that allowed these to get out. I can name many low cost airlines that would have done just that. You can be sure that they are losing money on these flights, so thank you very much NWA. BTW I managed to book 2 seperate flights within a month. I got LHR-LAS-LHR with the Expedia deal for April at £390 return for 2, then when that closed and I got wind of jetabroad, i booked LHR-LAX-LAS-LHR for May total £345 for 2.
TIP
When booking your seats with NWA you wil see that the front section of economy has the isle seats as premium, so you can't have them unless you are elite or pay for them hense it makes that section almost empty. Wait till you check-in at LHR and ask the agent to seat you each at the isle seats of a row of 4 in the middle. no-one will want to sit in the middle of a middle row, so you will end up with a row of 4 seats for the 2 of you, fantastic. we have done ths twice now as the flight from LHR-DTW is usually pretty light

donny_osmonds_mad_fan · 4 September 2008 at 5:01PM

I am sure I read somewhere that those premium seats in the front cabin are released 24 hours before....or when online check in becomes available, the front cabin has the powerpoints the back does not seem to on the a330, however I found on my flight the last 2 rows in that cabin did not have the premium seats on the aisle so have bagged those, the kids can seat in the back seats with minimal recline...as they will be happy they can keep their ds consoles charged and fingers crossed their mouths uncharged

however aim to be on the ball with online check in and maybe try to move us forward in that cabin to be prompt off the plane for immigration....miss my staff first class seats and first up for immigration at chicago lol

mitchg · 4 September 2008 at 5:28PM

Bristol to New York via Amsterdam and return same route early December.
Staying at the Holiday Inn Manhatten on 6th Ave for 5 nights .. Free.. lol yep free using my reward points.

So all in 4 people for 5 nights and 2 rooms in New York around £700 total....nice eh..
I think just one nights stay for two rooms would cost this much without any flights taken in account

Will be a second visit for me so its a shop trip but am planning to go on the New York Bateaux again for a dinner cruise this is a fantastic trip.

Taking my parents so another trip up the Empire state building, Grand Central station, Rockerfeller center,Central park, outlet shopping center. and all the usual tourists things

Timmy · 5 September 2008 at 4:14AM

Not sure if there's a better thread to post this in but I though some of you may be interested. I booked 2 Chicago flight last week with expedia and got the confirmation email that clearly states the eticket purchase has been confirmed by airline. The holding payment or whatever it's called was also showing on my online cc statement. One week later I notice talk of eticket numbers being the important thing and check my itinerary to see the numbers aren't there but I can still pull up my info on the NWA site and change seat numbers etc so I didn't panic until I checked my card account to find the holding payment has gone and no money has been taken at all!

Contacted both NWA and expedia by email about 24 hours ago to ask for eticket numbers but no response...checked my itinerary on expedia again today to find my status has gone from 'booked' to 'not booked' and it now says the two flights are gonna be just over 13 thousand dollars instead of the original 700!

If when I get to the bottom of this I'll post again but I'm not happy to say the least! It's one thing not getting the deal but the email suggested the price was finalised and we've organised a lot around these flights as we we're due to fly in 4 or so weeks.

Tips and Feedback from the NWA\KLM cheap USA fares

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