Halifax-Seattle Trip

"Greg Beaulieu" wrote in message
...
Hi, my first post here.

Thought I'd share my experiences on a trip from Halifax to Seattle I took
at the end of September. This was my first trip to the USA in 5 years.

I booked myself on Northwest out of Halifax to Detroit, then connecting to
Seattle. I had flown NWA to Detroit 6-7 years ago and back then it was a
DC-9 if memory serves. This time it was a Canadair regional jet and I have
to say I didn't like the aircraft much. The seats were cramped, the
windows rather low, and although it seemed fairly fast it was a bit noisy.
Plus at both airports there were no jetways used and we had to walk onto
the tarmac. I have to think there would be enough traffic to justify a
bigger airplane on that route.

Customs in Detroit was easy enough and the NWA terminal there is very
impressive. After a short layover I caught their flight to Seattle on a
757. Great flight, good service, quiet and comfortable. Landed in Seattle
on time and Sea-Tac airport seemed to be somewhat run-down, but
functional. I had a rental car booked thru National and that was an
ordeal, both finding their desk after a long trek on foot thru a parking
garage, then getting served. The whole rental car scene at Sea-Tac seems
very poorly thought out, forcing you to make very long walks thru the
garage with poor directional markings.

I enjoyed nearly a week in Seattle and eastern Washington before heading
back on a Saturday morning. I arrived at Sea-Tac around 7AM, returned the
car with no problem, then trekked forever to find the NWA counter. There
was a mob scene there, as it seemed that all of their positions were
self-serve and people were not having much luck with them. I had a senior
couple on one side of me, and a party of 4 oriental people on the other
side of me, only one of whom seemed to speak english, and they were all
having great difficulty with the kiosks. As did I, to start with, as my
Expedia itinerary did not make the ticket number obvious. Once I figured
that out, I was able to make it work, but still had to wait for someone to
tag my bag and check it. Self-serve makes sense in some circumstances, but
I think it needs more work and NWA shouldn't make it the only choice.

The security line at Sea-Tac that morning was huge and slow. Everyone was
being made to remove their shoes for some reason - I had seem some of that
before, but not universally. Seems ridiculous. Rest of the trip was
uneventful, although the long walks at the NWA terminal in Detroit made me
grateful for the moving sidewalks. Halifax airport needs to do something
about the non-jetway gate positions too, as they are at the far end of the
terminal and the walks are very long, and the area is pretty primitive.

All in all, not a bad trip all things considered. I don't like the airport
experience generally and overall these ones were no better or worse than I
expected, and the travel itself was fine. Seattle is a great city that I
really enjoyed, so that made it worthwhile.

--
Greg Beaulieu Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Hi Greg,

Glad you enjoyed your trip in general.

YHZ (Halifax) is going to go through a $70 million upgrade. This is the
latest phase of the $220 million Airport Improvement Program.

You can read more he

http://www.hiaa.ca/Default.asp?id=19...70.1.14.64.166

For years I have despised having to deal with flying in to Halifax on
international flights. I have seen improvements in the last 18 months.
Let's hope they continue.

toodles

HeatherM