Comments on: Delta Changes Every Northwest Flight Number

By: David SFeastbay

David SFeastbay — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:16:41 +0000

DL will be doing a big schedule change tomorrow (Jan 9) for travel from September 5 and beyond. After that date the NW code will no longer exist. All NW flight segments will be replaced by DL flight segments. Times and aircraft stay the same, but no more NW coded flights.

So if anyone wants to purchase space and travel on a ‘NW’ segment to have one last printed document for your collection, you better do it before September.

It’s sad to see NW vanish, as was some of the other old carriers of yester year.

By: bill

bill — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:33:29 +0000

@ Seth: Actually Delta seems to care about all of that, and service is a hallmark goal. NW interiors are being upgraded to DL standards quickly. There's a good chance the next NW plane you board will have the standard DL interior with it's leatrher seats, clean cabins, new blue carpets, brighter cabin lighting, and other amenities found on Delta's own aircraft. All of thios erquires a significant outlay of monies, and man hours.

By: bill

bill — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:25:24 +0000

@ Jason: Actually, Delta has had plasma monitors for some time around its system. Northwest equipment was more than a bit dated in many many areas, and Delta is in the process of trying to update and upgrade these to its current standards. Aircraft interiors are a prime example. Delta is currently re-doing the NW interiors to its leather seats, upgraded blue carpets, new laminate flooring in lavatories, galley improvements, entertainment systems, and brighter cabin lighting. Next year they plan to install WI-FI on former NW planes after the completing the ongoing instrallations underway on DL planes now.

By: Sara in MSP

Sara in MSP — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:01:40 +0000

Hey – does anyone know the number series for the NWA commuters, i.e. Mesaba?

It’s crazy seeing even the turboprops painted in Mesaba/NWA turn DL blue and whites flying over my house near MSP. I was wondering what was up in the interiors, if they were even bothering to update them… Based off the info re: the DC-9s (and who really could blame them for not caring enough to update them), I have a sneaky suspicion it’s the same for the commuters.

By: Christopher Davis

Christopher Davis — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:20:23 +0000

DRG: it’s not just airlines. For a while, Cingular Wireless had “Orange” and “Blue” customers after their merger with AT&T Wireless. (Later, of course, SBC bought AT&T and picked up the name in a move very similar to the HP/US or Valujet/Airtran transitions.)

By: DRG

DRG — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:13:34 +0000

I hate this stage in a U.S. carrier merger. Things seem to be much smoother elsewhere. When I covered the America West-US Airways merger a while back, at this point at which they had for all intents and purposes had merged but the flights were still operating under two codes, I stopped referring to America West altogether. They were US Airways-US and US Airways-HP.

By: oldiesfan6479

oldiesfan6479 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:35:37 +0000

CF wrote: AA1 is probably the most stable. It has apparently been the 9a NYC-LA flight since 1953 when nonstop service began. More so AA 2 LAX-IDL (now JFK), than AA 1 IDL-LAX, although flight 2 even had a short period of non-existence. Sometime in late '58 or very early '59, AA shifted their DC-7 transcon numbers up to 7XX, joining other DC-7 flights which had already been moved (probably when they locked down a firm date for the start of 707 ops and began selling them). So both 1 and 2 were temporarily "on hiatus" at that point. Come 01/25/59--the first day of the one initial 707 roundrip--the eastbound was again AA 2 LAX-IDL 0845-1615, but the westbound was AA 7 IDL-LAX 1815-2045. Even when a second 707 transcon RT was added on 02/15/59, the mid-morning westbound was initially AA 3 (not 1), with AA 10 as the eastbound red-eye (as it still is). That is what is shown in the AA timetables. At some point later on, AA shifted 3 to the noon timeframe (where it also remains to this day) and reinstated 1 as its mid-morning westbound number.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:25:37 +0000

@ Andrew: Andrew, boarded in IND , which jumped the gun and eliminated all traces of NW logos or references.. just for extra confusion. I should have snapped a picture of it, but at LGA, another classic sight. The DL flights are listed on new plasma monitors. The NW flights are listed on the adjacent monitor.. a 1974 Zenith TV, with Atari-style fonts!

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:43:57 +0000

SEAN wrote:

Same thing happend with US Airways when they took over America West.@ ttjoseph:

HP bought US, not the other way around...

By: David SFeastbay

David SFeastbay — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:15:21 +0000

Simon Blackburn wrote:

DL10 and DL11 have been ATL-LON since the service started – may have been DL’s first transatlantic? For a long long time DL11 left LGW at 1100 (and arrived at 1500 in ATL – here’s a great example of a flight that’s scheduled for longer now than it was 25 years ago) but in recent years it has moved around a bit.

Simon I have a DL timetable dated July 1, 1978 - September 14, 1978 and there is DL10/DL11 DL10 ATL-LGW lv 630pm ar 720am the next day DL 11 LGW-ATL lv 1210pm ar 425pm First class was USD675.00 one way plus taxes. And yes that is 675.00, unlike today where DL's J fare is USD6032.00 one way plus tax. Just think 31 years ago 675.00 was a lot of money. Today DL10 operates ATL-LHR and DL12 ATL-LGW and DL09 LHR-ATL and DL11 LGW-ATL. I wonder why they changed DL10 to LHR, but kept DL11 from LGW. That must have messed people up who knew those LGW flights all these years.