Unfortunately, our flight to Tokyo was with NWA (the airline formerly known as North West Airlines), which in my opinion is one of the worst airlines we’ve ever flown on (and we’ve flown on a lot of them).

Whenever we’ve used them, the service and facilities have always been minimal in my experience when compared with other carriers such as BA or Virgin, and aren’t even half as good as some of the Asian airlines (all of which offer some of the best service around). The cabin staff don’t really stop to give you the time of day, the planes (though current models) feel old and shabby, and it’s the only “full service” carrier where you have to pay $5 a pop for alcoholic drinks!

Unfortunately, they also happen to offer some of the cheapest fares around, so in order to make things affordable I guess you have to lower yourself on occasion… Still if this is a benchmark for flying an airline from a supposed “service orientated” society, you have to wonder by what definition of “service” they are talking about?