It is a fact of life that every single individual aircraft makes a slightly diffrent noise. No two, say, Boeing 747s make the same noise when you're onboard.
Yet every NWA plane makes a tremendous din - like there's something wrong with the engine. Which sounds likely, once you've read this.

WARNING: The following section may be very boring indeed. Feel free to skip it out. It’s not entirely relevant, just explaining what the hell I was doing on Northwest Airlines, the first time.

Northwest Airlines
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Northwest have been around since 1926, and I believe the flight attendants they employed then are still in service today (more on that later).
The partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines started in the late 1980s. It is really a useful partnership as together the two airlines other connections to pretty much anywhere that has an airport (or not, in some cases). Generally speaking KLM operate from Amsterdam airport where they have the monopoly on flights (over half the planes there are operated by KLM or their partners). Then KLM routes connect with Northwest routes in the USA, which connect to smaller US destinations and even Asia. But Northwest do operate some Amsterdam and Atlantic routes, one of which is Amsterdam-Boston.
I actually believe KLM and Northwest are partners only really because they both offer the poorest facilities, cheapest prices and the worst liveries ever to grace an aircraft.
Yep, the Northwest Airlines liver is basically grey until the very top the plane, where a red stripe runs down the fuselage to the tail, which is red with the Northwest logo at the top.
But, like KLM, Northwest have unveiled a new, more ‘contemporary’ livery, which is more attractive and modern.
And now I have seen it. The aircraft are now painted all white, with a red tail with a big, sort of half-logo on it. And also where it said 'Northwest Airlines' before it now says, it stupidly large lettering NWA (if you didn't know what this stood for it would look pretty weird, yes? Yes) and underneath, in small capitals 'Northwest Airlines'. Thankfully there is no NWA.com lettering. Anywhere.
In the ‘NWA’ onboard magazine, where I read about it, it stated the new livery ‘lasted longer and was cheaper to apply’. Wonder why they went for that option then….

We arrived at Amsterdam, and were told our seats had been changed to the central aisle seats, despite us having booked the flight over 4 months earlier. Northwest mainly (though apparently not always) use DC-10 aircraft on routes such as these.
DC-10 aircraft have two engines on the wings and one on the tail. They are somewhat infamous for their reputation as having one of the worst safety records of any commercial airliner – I found this out after travelling on them, but, obviously you wanted to know that. Ahem.
Fellow anti-DC-10 people may find it interesting to know that starting from September 2003, and for the next 5 years thereafter, NWA are introducing some 20+ Airbus A330 aircraft - presumably, most of the 20+ DC-10s will get replaced by these babies.
About time to - did you know they stopped producing DC-10s in 1989? And I was born in 1988 - blimey. Shows how old they are, eh? And trust me, if you go on one of them, you would believe it.
The layout of DC-10s is basically 2-5-2, unlike the average 3-4-3 of the 747s also used by Northwest on some transatlantic flights. Obviously as there were 3 of us travelling, we would have to have the central aisle. As my parents insisted on sitting next to each other, I was left with one of them on one side and a stranger on the other (both flights were almost full). So on the way there I had some strange guy who kept disappearing routinely for the long amounts of time – much to my bewilderment – there aren’t too many places you can go on an airborne aircraft. On the return journey I had a couple of German lesbians next to me, which certainly was a… thoroughly interesting experience…
The leg room was not the best I've had but certainly not the worst and was comfortable enough.
Flight time was roughly 7 hours on the outbound journey and about 6 hours on the return.

We were actually let onto the plane on time, which made a refreshing change. But as take of time approached, the captain – perhaps the most unprofessional sounding captains/pilots I’ve ever heard (in that he seemingly couldn’t think of much to say – even when he needed to – plus he said ‘thank you for flying Northwest – we are aware there is a wide choice of airlines on this route who offer better facilities’.) announced that during the pre-flight safety inspection a problem had been found in the ‘reverser’ that would take 45 minutes to replace. After wondering when and how a plane ever reverses, I sat and fell to sleep. 40 Minutes later I woke up abruptly because it sounded as though someone was going at the plane with a chainsaw beneath us. We were still on the tarmac. I presumed this was just the end of the work – but then the plane started moving away from the gate, and the captain announced work had been completed – but the noise continued. A horrible noise. An old American lady near me voiced the thing that was going through everyone’s minds. ‘That doesn’t sound too good’. No, it didn’t. And it continued till we were off the ground, when thankfully it stopped.
Now on this website I have read much about Northwest Airlines ancient flight attendants, but never really believed it. Now I did – as I watched a wrinkled old stewardess approaching, who bared resemblance to my history teacher – who incidentally has been teaching over 30 years and is about to retire. I almost expected her to look at me and speak in a low, husky voice and say ‘Fancy a cigarette?’.
Thankfully she didn’t – But did offer me a refreshing drink.

Most transatlantic carriers have seat back entertainment. And by that I mean not just a magazine, but a personal screen. Companies that do not offer this on all their planes usually offer a few screens mounted to the ceiling.
Not Northwest. They have a projector in each of the three main cabins (Business Class, and two economy classes – I was in economy by the way). On the way there the screen was projected onto a wall which doubled as a cupboard door – behind this door people could hang suit jackets. Obviously for some passengers who get that urge to put a suit on at 30,000 feet, as many people do, the film or program was disturbed.
Another annoying thing was that the projector had obviously seen better days on the inbound flight, as it would flicker red all too often.
There was a variety of programs, from information about Northwest Airlines, a documentary on ships in the Mediterranean and also a program on Tenerife, which was, um, appropriate.
The film on the outbound flight was ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’, a great way of whiling away a few hours (as it’s long) and ‘The Emperor’s Club’, a film I’d never heard of but proved to be quite enjoyable.

The return journey was not much different, except the engines often made unusual, discomforting noises and there was more turbulence.
It didn’t help that there was a large, ever so slightly more youthful cabin crew – one of whom was Steven, a really nice guy who confused everyone by looking like the pilot in his smart jacket (and suspenders – as in braces you dirty old…) but kept on adding or removing bits of clothing so you could never tell if it was actually him. If you ever meet Steven say hi!

Now, I've only ever done a 3 hour flight (which I suppose can be classed as medium-haul, yes?) before to Spain. That was nice. With Air 2000, there was proper entertainment (TV screens and a superb radio network and also excellent food).
But with NWA, a tired looking Airbus A320 (which is not a bad aircraft, you know - very reliable) sat out on the tarmac, still wearing the old livery. Onboard, the aircraft looked slightly unclean - well, perhaps uncared for is a better word.

MEMPHIS-AMSTERDAM
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Memphis Arport is horrible, don't ever go there. It's decorated with these horrible cheap bricks - clearly they got a job load in, and needed to do something with them, so they built some purposeless walls around the building.
There was a poster up saying 'Some 14 year olds have been DRUNK', to which I say to whoever did that poster 'Congratulations, Sherlock', I am 15 and back in the days when I was 14, even then, the people who HADN'T been drunk were in a minority. I know 15 year olds who manage to get served (somehow) in bars.