| This is going to be my official rant about Northwest Airlines, rooted in a poor experience that spans the better part of a year.
It all started in July, 2007. I had booked a trip through Northwest for me and my girlfriend, on a specific flight that two other friends booked. The destination was Hawaii, and the price ($650 per person, from Los Angeles) was just a little above average, but not bad considering short notice. Let it be noted that I had booked this flight only two days after reading an article about how Northwest flies some of the oldest planes in the industry: average age – 35 years. Luckily, I’m not aviophobic. At least not very. So the day of the flight, we find ourselves leaving slightly too late for the airport, sitting through slightly too much traffic, and waiting in a line that’s slightly too long. We end up at the check-in register with about 55 minutes to go before our flight leaves. Unfortunately, Northwest requires check-in 1 hour prior to departure, so the 5 minute world of difference means that we are denied our boarding passes. After discussing this matter with possibly the rudest customer service personnel in the known Universe, we began scrambling to find an alternative. The costly adventure has officially started. Northwest has no other flights open for us to take out to Hawaii within a week, so I end up booking a flight for another $600 per person departing the next day via Hawaiian Airlines. We stay at a hotel near the airport, and fly out at 4am the following morning. |
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After the trip, I was stuck with $1300 in credit with Northwest (non-transferrable, unlike other more deservingly successful airlines such as Southwest). This credit also had a 1 year expiration on it, so for the rest of 2007 I found myself constantly looking for trips to take. This is when I discover that aside from Hawaii, Northwest doesn’t fly anywhere interesting for under $1000. Their fare structure sometimes defies logic, for example a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Seattle would cost $250 (good deal) while a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas would cost $500 and require a layover in Texas. Eventually, my girlfriend and I settled on making a trip to Orlando, Florida out of it, since the credit was about to expire. So now the total price that I have paid for 2 flights to Hawaii and 2 flights to Orlando are approximated as follows: $650 x 2 = $1300 to Northwest, $600 x 2 = $1200 to Hawaiian. $1300 Northwest credit – $200 ($100 deduction per ticket for transfer fees) + $178 x 2 (additional charge for Orlando tickets) = $1456 for two tickets to Orlando. Total money spent is $2656.
And we’ve only just begun. Everything goes wrong on the day flying out, a culmination of work keeping me until 10:15pm, no printer to print boarding passes at home, and road construction forcing my late arrival at the airport AGAIN. No boarding pass. Missed flight. Super-rude customer service had the nerve to suggest I purchase another flight leaving the next day at $1100 PER PERSON. We end up leaving to eat dinner at 1:00am and going back to the airport to standby for a 6:50am flight. Luckily, they were able to book us for a flight in the morning with 1 layaway, at only $25 per person additional cost. Strangely, this information was not available to the rude personnel the night before. As a side note, I don’t blame Northwest for my problems arriving late at the airport. Strange circumstances have happened to me twice to force these situations, and it is not their fault. What is their fault is the way they handle a situation for me as a customer in need of help. Apparently they think that scolding me like a 3 year old is the optimal way to assist a passenger in need of help after missing a flight. Lovely. Three wonderful days in Orlando, and it’s time to return home. We arrived at the airport with 3 hours to spare, boarding pass in hand. Everything is going amazingly smoothly. Then lightning strikes. Literally. The Northwest personnel announce to us that lightning has struck our aircraft, and they need to inspect all systems for safety reasons. 1-hour delay. For the record, after telling my dad this story, he refuses to believe lightning actually struck our plane. So the delay would have been a small inconvenience had the flight been direct non-stop, but of course we had to switch planes in Memphis. So the saga continues, and we land in Memphis with 15 minutes before our next flight takes off. We run across two terminals to find the gate doors shut, and two Northwest attendants scolding us for being late. Once again, their best initial plan for us is to stay the night in Memphis, and catch a flight the next day. While I love Barbeque, I was really looking forward to getting home that day. So eventually, after some yelling and body slams (just kidding), we squeeze a layover flight out of them that will go from Memphis to Phoenix, AZ, and then to Los Angeles. The flight was leaving in 20 minutes, which was just enough time for me to wonder why they didn’t let us know about this option in the first place. With 6 boarding passes in hand (above right), my Northwest saga has come to an end. After 11 hours and 3 airplanes, I was finally home. Call it a moment of Stockholm Syndrome, but I sort of miss it. |
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