Take the flight to O'Hare. Arrive about noon. Bag the second half of the connection and rent a one-way National car (I think they charge $10 extra for the one way.) Drive to Madison. Arrive before either alternative.

This is why I fly Continental. Always on time, almost always direct flights.

I presume the word "lovely" is genuine, yes? Because unlike most everything else in metro Detroit, the airport terminal actually is very lovely!

'Why is Northwest lining up defective planes for the first flights?!'

They aren't. More likely than not, the airplane was going through scheduled maintenance the night before. If some sort of unanticipated damage was found during the visit, Northwest would have to delay the plane until it could be fixed.

First-thing-in-the-morning flights have always been most prone to this sort of delay. Probably always will be.

Northwest + Detroit = disaster.

Always.

NW and Minnie - ok
NW and Madison - ok
NW and Chicago - ok

Detroit - always sucks. I will do just about anything to avoid it

As my MI relatives say "Northworst".
I trust their pilots, they get a lot of practice flying in bad weather.
But the rest of the operation seems a bit shaky at times....

The point is that they're NOT giving you a defective plane. They're giving you a plane that is NOT defecive.

The most likely time to find something wrong with a plane is first thing in the morning.

The world isn't perfect, sometimes actual work has to be done to make your life easier.

I got a defective plane from Northwest in Detroit. After delay, delay, delay we finally boarded an aircraft and then just sat there tied to the terminal. Eventually, we were told this aircraft needed a mandatory maintenance check and would not be flying. So, we all trooped back off into the boarding area.

While we were all sitting on that plane to nowhere the next flight on that route had arrived, disembarked, reloaded, and left.

You don't suppose Northwest knew all the time that our plane wasn't going to fly and they just used it to clear the boarding area for the next flight and to hide from us that the next flight was just going to breeze past us?

Hard as I try, I just can't find a way to be too cynical about Northwest.

That should teach you to fly Northwest, likely the worst airline in the USA.

Motor City Math Man: Yes, I was not trying to be sarcastic about the Northwest terminal. It is nice, even if not the place I want to spend an entire Saturday.

As for all of you who pointed out that morning is the best time to catch problems, my point is simply that they should catch such problems before they cause delays. Delays like this one have ripple effects throughout the day.

Finally, I haven't had generally bad experiences with Northwest, even in Detroit. Of course, all of you must recognize that it is a question of options. It's either Northwest through Detroit or United or American through Chicago. My experience has been that anything beats any airline through O'Hare.

Planes break, it's a fact of life. Given how extraordinarily complex they are and the extremes of temperature and pressure the various components experience, I'm more amazed that they don't break more often. When you look at the statistics, around 1% of flights cancel due to maintenance issues, with perhaps 5% delayed due to maintenance.

You seem to think the airline should've caught the problem during the night. Maybe, maybe not, depending on what the problem was. During overnights at major airports, mechanics usually conduct "A" checks, which entail looking over major components and assemblies for damage or excessive wear. Many of these problems can be rectified before the first flight. More insiduous systems problems, however, will not be caught until the airplane is powered up and the preflight checks made, perhaps even the engines started, or the aircraft configured for takeoff. These are usually caught by the pilots, who arrive at the airplane 45mins to an hour before departure time. Now, in the "good old days," problems that didn't affect safety of flight were often ignored until it was convenient to fix them, for example until the airplane had some down-time at a maintenance base. Those days are gone - the FAA has become extremely zealous about EVERY tiny problem being documented as soon as it's discovered, and fixed before the airplane is flown. This has increased the number of maintenance delays...but, the number of maintenance-related crashes has been dramatically reduced. Maybe you haven't noticed, but the US hasn't had a single jetliner crash since December of 2001. That's a record that no other part of the world can boast, and it's largely due to pain-in-the-ass rules that occasionally leave you sitting at your gate for an hour or two longer than you planned.

As an airline pilot, maintenance delays bug me as much as they bug you, but I'm glad the airline puts as much time and money into maintenance as they do. It's an investment in my safety and yours as well.

Yes, Sam, I am grateful that I didn't crash. I would rather have spent an entire Saturday in the Northwest terminal in Detroit than eternity at the bottom of Lake Michigan. I am imagining the new marketing pitch for Northwest: "At least we didn't kill you!"

If your stats about delays are correct, then I really am cursed because I have been on many planes with maintenance problems lately. I don't purport to have all the answers for the airline industry, but I think that having working planes at 6:00 am, even if someone has to start testing them an hour or two earlier seems like a reasonable step when almost one-third of the arrival delays industry-wide are system delays.

Next time try Delta through Cincinnati to Madtown. Works pretty well most of the time and they have a few flights a day.

When in DTW make the trip from the A Terminal to the B/C Terminal. An underground route with a glass/light/music show; it is worth the look-see.

If you're in a bad mood it will calm you; if you're in a child-like mood, it will awe you.

Tune out the others around you and just soak it in. You'll be glad you did. If you're not moved (or at least experience a change in heart rate, either way,) I'll treat you to a Coney.

p.s. Be sure to check out the fountain at the connection point.

It could be worse.

April 25, 2006
One Day, That Economy Ticket May Buy You a Place to Stand
By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT

The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class?

A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only "seats."

Airbus has been quietly pitching the standing-room-only option to Asian carriers, though none have agreed to it yet. Passengers in the standing section would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal.

Robert, that is hilarious. I saw that story on CNN while waiting in the airport! For the 50 minute flight to Madison, I might have taken it.

You know, when I saw the "standing" ticket idea, at first I was cynical, then I realized hey, twice the number of people packed onboard would probably mean half-cost...

... I think I might just stand for a bit over an hour if it gets me from here to, say, Miami for $45.

I second the comment about Northworst. They are a joke.

Dear Gordon, although I agree about all the disparaging remarks about Northworst, the best thing, being a Madisonian, about flying from Detroit to here is you effectively arrived when you left, when going west. Best regards, Steve

Steve, I confess that I love that part about going through Detroit, too.