Having flown AWA and NWA recently, I must say I certainly prefer CO. Although the flights on partner airlines were fine, they were missing that little extra that CO seems to offer.

CO employees seems a little nicer, have a little better sense of humor. They smile a little more. In short, they seem to be having more fun. And for me It makes for a more enjoyable flight.

All in all I'd rate the AWA and NWA experience very good, just not up to CO's very high standards.

 

I have always tried to fly CO, and up until recently have had nothing but bad experiences on AWA and NW, but yesterday I was on a NW connection where everything worked well, the FA's were great, the planes clean & last but not least, I was upgraded to F. So, I have to give credit where it is due.... That being the case, I am not ready to switch alliances.

 

Definitely CO. Once some of CO's better partners, such as SAS, Air Canada, and Air France went elsewhere, the only good carrier left was Continental. Alitalia is okay, Northwest leaves much to be desired, and America West seems to be merely a cheap surrogate of Continental.

 

It would be hard for me to imagine a Continental elite who would prefer to travel on a partner at this time (Except maybe now Alaska Airlines) Almost half of my travel is on America West, since Continental has reduced service to only 2 flights a day into Tucson since I first became a CO elite about 10 years ago.

I have been generally treated well as a CO Gold and now Platinum flying on HP. The CO flight attendants seem to be a little more experienced and mature then on HP.

Northwest offers one exciting non-stop to MSP daily, I havn't flown them for a few years, from what I hear, I think I'll wait a little longer before booking my next flight.

 

I agree with what has been said about CO. They are tops as far as I am concerned. I also have had good luck with AWA and prefer them when jaunting around the the left coast. I have found them to be reliable, friendly and I think a good partner for CO. I give CO a 10 and AWA an 8.5.

 

Flew a red-eye on AWA last night. I thought everyone was friendly but the plane looked kind of old in comparison to Continental.

Flew NW two years ago FC to Hawaii. Had a very good experience, but I've heard horror stories about NW domestic travel. Haven't had a problem in my limited flight experience.

All in all, I love CO and think they are the best. My rankings:

CO 9
NW 8
AW 7.5

Please keep in mind, my NW and AW experience has included a total of 4 and 2 flights each, respectively.

--Ryan

 

CO-10; AW-8.5; NW-5
CO people are always nice and know the rules. I'm a Platinum and have always gotten upgrades (even a few int'l to BusinessFirst) and made to feel special. I have generally had good treatment on AW and sometimes have very good meals on long haul FC flights. They could use more seats in FC in there 757's, though.
My experiences on NW have been a terrible. I came close to blows with a FA in AMS when she forced me to check a standard roll-on because I had a small backpack(my wife has larger purses). I had boarded with my elite card among the first 25 passengers.Then she lied saying that I could pick it up in DTW, despite having to go through customs in PHL. Of course I needed to pick up the bag and haul it throught customs and of course it was last off the plane. And I was close to a heart attack running about 1/4 mile to make the connection to DTW, which they surprisingly held for 15 minutes. By my judgement, less that half of the connecting passengers from AMS made it.
Finally, on a quick mileage run to IAH thru MSP, NW refused to let me check in at the CO Presidents Club in IAH claiming I was not in their reservations system, despite the CO agent having in her hands paper tickets issued by NW several hours earlier. There are a FEW nice people at NW, but they are the exception compared to the norm at CO. They need to get MUCH better to get my business.

 

Living in northwest Ohio, I fly both CO and NW a great deal. Unfortunately, NW fares out of DTW are significantly lower than CO's out of CLE, so I drive to DTW and fly NW almost weekly.
In general, the CO FA's are much more cheerful (labor relations are still sticky at NW), and FC food and amenities (hot towel, etc) significantly better at CO. NW has the unenviable burden of having a DTW hub (voted the worst US airport by frequent flyer). There is an enormous difference in attitude and atmosphere in the President's Club vs NW lounges. The CO President's club attendants are uniformly cheerful and willing to bend most rules to solve problems. The NW attendants merely tolerate you.
The ONLY redeeming quality at NW is that my upgrades are always 100% available. Even on their oldest DC-9's they have 16 FC seats, and hold none back hoping for revenue. When you call for your upgrade, if there is a first class seat open, it's yours.

On balance, I would give CO a 10, HP 6, and NW about a 5. My infrequent DL flights would rank about a 3!

 

What I like about the alliance is that as a platinum elite, I almost always get upgraded. No coupons, no certificates, no stickers, and I don't have to pay anything extra for an upgrade. It is equally easy to get the upgrades on all three airlines.

CO's FC service is slightly better than NW and HP in my opinion. If I have a choice, I take CO. But HP and NW are OK.

 

One other (personal) advantage of CO is their consistently more liberal carry on policy.

 

I'm not sure that I would consider a more liberal carry on policy an advantage. Since most of my CO flights lately have been full, there is the delay of people desperately seeking bin space. Others become irate when the FA asks people to check bags. It just seems to make everyone more irritated.

 

I'd put CO above AWA. I've had good but insufficient experiences with Alaska to put them in the same league as CO.

 

One minor plus is that CO posts mileage faster than NW seems too.

 

CO is very good. Among partners, VS is fantastic, though their code-sharing agreement limits seat availability eligible for FFB credit.

 

Continental - First
America West - Second
Northwest - (Distant) Third