One More Question--CO, NW, KL....

....is there much difference in the quality of planes, service. Found a good deal for KLM (serviced by NW) to AMS out of DTW. So now I'm down to KLM or CO to AMS. NW or CO back across.

Thank you for everyone's patience with these tedious questions.

I like flying NWA through DTW, simply because I find DTW a very easy airport to navigate.

I have recently (December) flown Continental: DAY to IAH; IAH to ANC and return. In coach, we had two--can you believe it--two meal services, at no additional cost, on the Houston to Anchorage segment. A hot barbecued chicken sandwich, salad, small bag of carrots, and a Twix bar served soon out of IAH; a ham and cheese sandwich, bag of chips, and Oreo cookies served before arriving in Anchorage. On the return flight to Houston, a hot breaded chicken sandwich, salad, and Twix bar was served soon after taking off with a muffin offered as a breakfast item about an hour before landing in Houston. I was most pleased with CO's service and the crew's attitude.

On the other hand, I flew CO from Rome to Newark in 2004 and lunch was nearly inedible while the snack served before landing was good.

As the other poster said, clearing customs/passport control in DTW is usually very fast.

As far as service goes, I think CO is clearly the best of the three.

Paul

Since the KLM flight is actually operated by NW, we only have these two to consider. You don't mention what cities you are flying to/from other than DTW and AMS, so some of this is speculation.

My thoughts on your decision process revolve around the various factors (assuming coach travel):

1) Inflight service. I would give a nod to CO. Better domestic inflight meal opportunities and generally good reviews of flight crews. If you have short "domestic" legs to/from the gateway, there would likely not be any full meal service, negating that advantage. Internationally, CO is again a slight bit ahead, though not by much.

2) Aircraft. NW has older airplanes on their domestic runs than does CO, and the domestic routes do not have any inflight entertainment (IFE). CO has newer planes, with IFE and newer seats with adjustable headrests. The contrary is true for the transatlantic (TATL) routes, with new A330's having replaced the old NW DC-10's. The AVOD (Audio Video On Demand) system on NW TATL is quite good. CO uses 757 and 767 aircraft TATL. If you have preferences on aircraft, I'd look at the differences. Check out Seatguru.com for more details. (for instance, the 330 is 2-4-2, which means a couple could get a pair of seats alone. On a 757, it is 3-3 meaning you'd likely have someone in a middle seat. The 767 is 2-3-2, a mixed bag.)

3) Connecting airports. DTW is a delight to connect through. The express tram is a fast way from one end of the airport to the other, with moving walkways in between stations. Large walkways, plenty of space in an open feeling, wide variety of vendors, 4 parallel runways - all makes DTW one of the premier hubs in the USA. EWR has more traffic issues and is a "tighter" feeling airport in the terminals. Also, C/I at DTW generally runs faster/smoother than at EWR.

4) Intangibles. Look at the travel times and see how they work for your personal preferences. Do you have enough connection times, or too much? How about meals, meal break opportunities and your body's system? Does the routing from your home to the gateway (and back) make sense for you.

Hopefully there's some meat for you to chew on. If you have more specific questions, fire away.

Thank you for all your input.

We are flying from SDF, so the domestic leg is short, so no meal.

DTW did sound more inviting than EWR. The flight times on NW/KL are better for us as it leaves at 9:30 at night, so we thought we could sleep better on the plane if it leaves later. The prices are about the same. The total travel time is the same. Layover on flight over is 1.10hr in DTW, versus 51 minutes or 2.30hr in EWR.

The return flight leaves later on KL/NW from AMS, and since we are not morning people that works better for us.

We had a terrible experience with Delta equipment last year, so didn't want to make the same mistake. The KL/NW 330 sounded better, but didn't know if this was true or not.

So y'all answered a number of my questions and will probably go with NW, due to itinerary, TATL, and DTW.

Thanks, again.

Happy Flying!