Breaking Up With NWA

I'm usually pretty loyal to the companies or products I prefer. All this time I've been excessively loyal to Northwest Airlines (in fact, while I've traveled other airlines for work, I don't believe I've ever bought a personal travel ticket on another carrier), primarily because they are a MN company, and secondarily because, being a MN company, Minneapolis was a hub, so I could get reasonable direct flights from the various places I have lived, even including a smaller airport like Harrisburg. In the past couple of years, those direct flights have been offered at increasingly ridiculous times of day, but I was still loyal, and in situations where I had to make connections, the other main hub was Detroit, which was at least on the way between my departure and destination.

But ever since this supposed "merger" with Delta (which now, to me, seems more like a hostile takeover), things have gone from bad to worse, and they have been slowly phasing out both Minneapolis and Detroit as a hub for the airline - it seems the direct flight to Mpls has disappeared, and the connecting flights through Detroit are getting rarer and increasingly offered only at ridiculous times. Now they always want to route me through Atlanta instead, which is stupid - why would I want to spend way more time on a plane than I need to, and travel deep into the south when my destination is northwest?

So, I'm sorry Northwest, but you've lost me as a customer. United may break guitars, but they fly through Chicago, which is on the way between MN and PA, and they offer flights almost every hour, so I don't have to travel at the crack of dawn or the deep of night (and the flights are about $70-$100 cheaper to boot). And in a worst case scenario, should I find myself grounded at O'Hare, I know people in Chicago, and/or I could rent a car and handle the drive by myself in either direction.

We've had a good run. . .I feel really weird ending it this way, but I feel like you've left me no other choice. You've turned into something I don't even recognize anymore. . .

Hope Atlanta makes you happy,
C.