Looks like a way to earn more FF miles. Does Northwest fly anywhere worth going?

I was waiting for them to join, as NW flies to Thailand. This way I can use my Delta buddy pass all the way to Thailand instead of just to Tokyo.

Currently got a Rio - Miami - Tokyo - Rio buddy pass booked in March. Once the merger goes through I'll change the Tokyo portion to BKK, with an Air Asia side trip to Jakarta.

Yipppieee.....

NW flies to AC, and has excellent times at least from the Northeast going through Detroit.

The return flight is bit over 21 hours, however, no entertainment center at each seat.

NW may fly to Manila, but they don't fly to AC (Clark).

I am flying NWA from Minneapolis to BKK by way of NRT and return from MNL to Minneapolis by way of NRT. If I understand Fooledagain1, I won't get a personal entertainment center at my seat on any of these flights?!!? Geez, this is going to be even more painful :-(

Sorry about that, I meant Manila not AC.

NW is the only airlines I've flown internationally that does not have the entertainment center in each seat.

Checking in at Manila on your way out is a "major" pain.

At least your going through NRT and not Nagoya, Nagoya sucks big time.

One advantage to NW, never had a problem booking many reward flights with ff miles to Manila.

You mean there are people who fly into MNL for some reason other than going to AC????

Northwest usually flies 747's MSP-NRT and MNL-NRT. The 747's have no personal TV's in coach but really nice ones in business class. NRT-BKK they usually fly the A330's. These DO have personal TV's in coach.

For Manila especially, be sure to use online check-in before arriving at the airport. Then you can skip the longest lines, although you still need to go through the online-check-in line. Or better yet if you are business class or Skyteam elite, the business class check-in is not so bad. The ordinary coach check-in sure looks like a clusterfuck though. I actually like Northwest out of Manila because they have upgraded me to business class for free on economy award tickets 2 out of 3 flights MNL-NRT.

Thanks for the heads up. I actually will be flying into Clark from Bangkok, but my departing flight leaves from Manila.

Unfortunately, I lost my status with Sky Team this year, so I am going to have to brave the lines at MNL. Having done this before, I know I need to arrive three hours before departure time. That means I have to leave AC at 2 AM :-(

MNL is such a crap shoot it is about the only airport in the world I try to arrive 3 hours early too, but seriously, the online check-in line doesn't look to bad. Just check in from an internet shop the night before and you should miss 90% of the check-in mob.

Identifier for Minneapolis airport is: MSP

[Credit given for Minneapolis/St.Paul]

CFK

After missing a flight in Manila once, I made it a point to begin leaving Angeles City 5 hours before flight time. That's not so bad with Philippine Airlines, whose flights to LAX leave at 8:30PM and 10PM on Sundays.

Philippine Airlines now flies out of a new different terminal than everyone else. Lines aren't that long there.

The old terminal is bitch just to get into when they xray all bags before you even get inside the ticketing terminal.
Then, after you got in you waited in line for the airlines for a bording pass.
Then a line for airport taxes
Then a line for immigrtion.
Then another line for final security

You left out where your bag is x-rayed a third time if you go into and leave the PAGS VIP Lounge and then x-rayed a fourth time to get into the gate area before you make it to your plane.

And all those lines typically take me about 30 mins or less (excluding the final boarding line). Never found it to be much more than a nuisance. (That's based on 15 departures from MNL.) Now if you arrive closer to flight time and there's a long line at checkin, good luck. PAL has about the slowest checkin process on earth.

As for the trip down from Angeles - I've had it take anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5 hours!

The key is to get there 3 hours before the flight otherwise the lines get long and slow.