Is Northwest Airlines the worst?

I dont think its any particular line anymore. I believe since about 04 and on the entire industry has gone this side of a Grayhound bus. With the rise in fuel costs people just have to fly now. Its horrible. I wont fly any more just because of this. I am working real hard so Someday soon I can rent a Jet with some business partners. JJ

 

Here's a letter I wrote a few years ago regarding an event with Hawaiian Airlines. Sorry if it's a tad long.

Dear Sir or Madam:

My family and I recently flew on your airlines for our family vacation to Maui. I will try to give you a detailed and accurate account of what happened.

To begin, I booked this trip approximately 10 months in advance. Three weeks prior to our flight I received an e-mail letting me know my itinerary had changed. I was originally booked on a non-stop to Maui and now we were leaving on a slightly later flight with a stop in Honolulu. I also noticed that when I received the new itinerary, that for the Maui leg, our seat assignments were 01F, 01F and 01E. I called the airlines regarding this and they changed the seats to 01E, 01F and 02E.

The morning of the flight I called the airlines to confirm the flight was on time. I was told that the 12:15 p.m. flight was now departing at 9:55 p.m. that evening. The airlines said there was nothing they could do, but if I went to the airport, that most likely, the airline was probably holding seats on another carrier for us. Since it was too late to delay the limousine that was already on route, we decided to proceed to the airport. Upon arrival at the ticket counter we were told that the flight was delayed, but Northwest Airlines was holding seats on their 12:55 p.m. flight and Hawaiian would re-book us. My family and I stood patiently at the ticket counter while the ticket agent tried to book the flight. After 51 minutes, the agent called over her supervisor. She explained, to her supervisor, that she was able to book my ticket but was having a problem with my wife and daughter. During these 51 minutes, the agent never even looked up to make eye contact or to explain what was happening. The supervisor explained to the agent what she was doing wrong and continued to work on re-booking the flight. Another 11 minutes went by when the supervisor looked up at me and said, “If you’re going to make faces and be frustrated, then why don’t you step away from the counter?” She was definitely correct; I was rolling my eyes to my wife and was quite frustrated. I had stood at the counter for 62 minutes and then to make matters worse your agent felt the need to start insulting me in front of my wife and daughter. The supervisor then handed me my tickets and instructed me to go to the Northwest counter. Upon arrival to the Northwest counter I presented my tickets to the agent. He took the tickets and checked the computer for the reservations (made by the Hawaiian agent). He informed that no one had booked us on any flight. I told him that Hawaiian told me Northwest was holding seats for the delayed Hawaiian flight. The agent called his supervisor over to confirm this. The supervisor said he knew nothing about this and Northwest was not holding seats for the Hawaiian flight. The ticket agent said he had 3 seats left in first class and that he would give them to us. I thanked him profusely. As he was booking us on the flight he informed us that the Hawaiian ticket agent had only booked (per the ticket that Hawaiian issued) us to Honolulu and not Maui. He immediately ran down to the Hawaiian ticket counter and returned within a minute. He informed us that Hawaiian would issue the additional leg of the trip, but it would take a couple of minutes. The agent instructed us to go down to security to clear our luggage and then return to pick up the additional tickets. We complied. Upon return to the Northwest ticket counter the agent informed us that he had returned to the Hawaiian ticket counter and could not find the original person who promised to book the Maui leg of the trip and couldn’t find anyone else willing to help. He said that since we had an electronic ticket to go ahead to Honolulu and pick up the ticket there. We opted to follow his advice as opposed to going back to be insulted by the Hawaiian agents. The Northwest flight began to board and we were seated. Approximately 5 minutes before departure I was approached by a Northwest agent. He said that my wife and daughters tickets were fine but my ticket was actually a cancellation of the Hawaiian flight and not a real ticket. I explained what had happened and the Northwest agent said he would deal with Hawaiian and for me not to worry. We arrived in Honolulu a few minutes late and with very little time before our Maui leg was to depart. I explained what had happened to the Hawaiian agent because they were having trouble locating our reservations in the computer. After a couple of minutes went by he said “Those people in L.A. are idiots” referring to how everything was (or wasn’t) entered into the computer. He wrote “In Transit” on the tickets and told us to run to the gate. We arrived at the gate and the agent told us to wait due to the fact that our tickets said “In Transit”. The agent called someone and told us to get on the flight. When we walked on to the plane there were people in our seats. I told the flight attendant and she told us to take any seat in the back of the plane. She said it was a short flight and to have a seat. I was too tired to complain so we sat down. Upon arrival to Maui we noticed our bags did not make the flight. I’m sure the turnaround between flights was too short. The baggage did arrive on the next flight ending a very long day.

I’ve never written a letter to a company complaining, but I felt this situation should be brought to someone’s attention. While Northwest had absolutely no obligation to us, they went far beyond the call of duty, while Hawaiian was apathetic and insulting. I hope that we can find a fair and equitable solution to this horrendous experience. I realize that like many airlines Hawaiian is going through a difficult time. I have flown with Hawaiian many times and have never experienced anything like this.

 

I also want to point out that T mobile is the worst when it comes to wireless.

 

I have T-mobile and haven't had any problems.

As far as NWA, I think once you get vouchers/coupons involved, it becomes a pain in the ass to deal with regardless of airline. I've always had good experiences buying tickets online (no vouchers) and printing my boarding pass on my printer. Delta, Southwest, Continental, US, AirTran, etc.

 

If you can't handle everything online with a direct flight on a top airline(American or other) then you're probably going to get jacked somehow.

 

I had a rough experience with AA flying from Canada down to some strange state, Texas I think it was , ripped me off for just over $1k on the tickets, SOL. AA finally relent on $150 of that, but a voucher for $100 showed up. Left us on the plane at the gate for 3 hours w/o food or water or hope.

Reminded me of US Air back in the early 90's - and not in a good way.

 

We had Cingular then we transferred to T-Mobile. Haven't encountered any problems so far.

For me, the best airline company that I have ever been in is Cathay pacific. I traveled from Manila, Philippines to Hong Kong. Its very luxurious. I also like the fact that it has monitors everywhere.. even in the head rest! Plus, the flight attendants are nice and a lot of them are pretty!

Other airline companies that I have used are Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Philippines Airlines, United Airlines, Air France, and China Airlines. I don't recall some of my experiences in some of those airlines but the worst one IMO is Southwest. They look really cheap especially the inside of the plane.

 

Northwest is the worst major commercial airline out there IMO. Always hated flying with them. Southwest is my fav for sure, even without the first class section. I think it's nice they don't have a first class section actually, no need for one. Always love flying with them.

American Airlines is ok, tolerable.

 

I had a bad experience on American Airlines...

 

That's kind of odd. I'm not one to be really picky about an airplane interior, but Southwest is the airline I use most when I travel in the US (they don't do international obviously). I just get a bag of pretzels and a soda and I'm happy. The trips aren't that long so I don't expect any frills. They get the job done with little hassle and for a good price (if reserved early enough).

I flew international with Delta from JFK to Paris and they had some nice looking flight attendants as well.

 

I don't think the problem is the airline. The problem is you were trying to use vouchers that were not yours, which causes too much triangulation. But yeah, Nothwest sucks.

 

It's not called Northworst for nothing.

Although, it's got nothing on Useless Air (US Air), Untimely (United) or Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport (Delta).

CW

 

I remember once back in 2004 on our flight from Los Angeles to Chicago.. there's only like about 20 passengers so we sat wherever we wanted. It felt like we rented out the whole Southwest Airline plane.

 

That's a loaded question

 

FF'ers call it "Northworst" for a reason.

Me thinks the rep was just playing with you because he/she didn't know what they were doing regarding the upgrades............on every airline that I have ever been involved in those electronic certs for upgrades would have been useless unless you were all of the below.........

-were you flying on the correct fare (ie......paying too much)
-you must be a member of their FF program
-you must have status in their program (ie....have flown 50K + miles a year with them)
-you were not bumped by pax with more status
-most airline upgrade certs are non-transferable

So........in the case of the upgrade, don't sweat it........you probably didn't qualify anyways. I am not defending NW here as I hate them as well......old airplanes and grumpy staff.......but all airlines are like this.....I fly 100K miles a year....been dere.....done dat.

 

I've been flying US Air just about every week for the last 4 years and can't really complain. There was a pretty extended period of BS when they merged with AmericaWest, but that's mostly cleared up and they emerged better than before. You get your snotty employee every now and then, but overall I think they're pretty damn good. They've taken to the new 'transparent' business approach where company communications lay it all out on the line. Not much hiding behind consultant-speak and corporate obfuscation. Anytime something breaks, they apologize, explain what happened, and say they're working on fixing it... oddly enough they really DO get the broken systems/processes fixed soon after. Kind of refreshing to see that since my measure of a good business is one that admits and corrects its mistakes. All people/companies will screw up, but not many will fess up and actually do something about it...

-R

 

Glad somebody brought this up... I flew Northwest about a month ago and they tore the crap out of my luggage and told me tough luck when I complained. It was a trip for work but they certainly won't be getting any of my personal business.

 

Hey, quit *****ing about NWA until you've flown Air Botswana. Now THAT is a crappy airline.

 

In Rob's case, once can summarize the whole experience by uh, Remixing the name "NWA"

NWA the airline + NWA the band = North, With Attitude

Sir Wax-a-lot

 

NWA is in bankruptcy. They've renegotiated their employee's contracts. I can't remember the percentages but as I recall there were substantial pay cuts for almost everybody (pilots, flight attendants, mechanics) so that certainly contributed to the attitude problems you encountered. Which is a shame, really, for the employees and the customers.

I do business indirectly with a number of airlines. Bankruptcy allows an airline to cancel or renegotiate their contracts to more favorable terms. It is frustrating to provide an airline a service at a fair price for years only to have the rug pulled from underneath as their bankruptcy alllowed them to cancel the contract with minimal notice. Restructuring is a part of business but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it and apparantly NWA has gone about it the wrong way. Several of the airlines I do business with are in the same boat but have made a conscious effort to revamp the business in a positive manner and are being rewarded for their efforts.

Your experience was shameful and you should share it with their customer service team. They could use the feedback to improve their situation.