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This is an open letter to the CEO and all the employees of Northwest Airlines.
This last week I had the pleasure of flying your airlines on a business trip from Appleton Wi to St. Louis, Mo connecting through Minneapolis, MN. The day before my return flight, there were some pretty nasty storms in the midwest that caused havoc to travelers all over the US. When Minneapolis is backed up, that pain can be felt in many a city around the US. This was true in St. Louis as my departing flight was delayed several hours due to the previous days weather related backups and a runway that was closed in Minneapolis.
Once I boarded the flight to Minneapolis I had a sneaking suspicion that my regional flight to Appleton would be delayed. As i’ve learned, regional flights get canceled by almost anything minor… if a flight attendant gets an hangnail 🙂 — so bad weather is a shoe-in for delayed or canceled flights to Appleton. Once we landed in Minneapolis, over the loudspeaker, the flight attendant gave us a 1-800 number to call to find out about connecting flight status. I called he number and found out that my connecting flight was not delayed but had been canceled. This really wasn’t any huge newsflash, what made me wince was the amount of time I thought I would have to stand in line, dealing with getting a seat on what would most likely be an oversold later flight. These types of situations ALWAYS bring out the worst in people. I try to keep a cool head and roll with the flow, but not all travelers can say the same.I know the ground staff tries to do their best, but all people want to do is get home… Ahhh the glamor of business travel.
As I deplaned, my mind turned into survival mode. Where’s the monitors, and where the closest ground agent to get me re-ticketed on a later flight, wheres the bathrooms as its going to be a long time in line and I need to prepare myself. I had to act fast as I know others are in the same boat. Upon exiting the jetway, I was greeted by the nicest gentleman in Northwest blue. He asked if I needed assistance with my connecting flight. I told him I called the 1-800 number and was told my connection had been cancelled and that I needed to get furhter info on a later flight. He then said the magic words I thought I would never ever hear… “Please go over to the counter, find your name and find your updated ticket and itinerary”
So I made a 90 degree turn and made a beeline for the ticket counter. These in nice rows where the new seat assignmentss for many if not all of the passengers that had cancelled flights. I quickly found my name, which was highlighted in yellow on the boarding pass. I had a seat on the 7:55 PM flight to Appleton. A confirmed seat… WOW!!! Not only did I get a seat, but there was a voucher for 2500 free frequent flier miles and another voucher for $50 off my next NWA flight.
So let me see if I got this right. I don’t need to find a free ground agent to get re-booked. I don’t need to schlep myself and my luggage in line along with 50+ other people who are all mad, tired and missing their families… to get re-ticketed? AND NWA was giving me $50 off another flight and frequent flier miles to boot? Remember this wasn’t their fault, its mother natures gig here. This was some customer service!!! I love it!
This is exactly what I call customer service and the reason I am now going to look for chances to book flights on NorthWest Airlines. THANK YOU Northwest for an amazing customer sevice experience, Love Tommy.
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Glad to hear that you had a great experience. We love to hear these stories. Hope to have you on a flight someday soon!
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
As long as Northwest doesn’t lose any of your stuff . . .
I’ve recently learned that Northwest (and probably every other major airline) has a lost & found system that’s about 50 years out of date.
Lost your stuff? It’s sitting in a room somewhere with a lot of other ‘lost’ stuff. Don’t sit by the phone waiting for them to call, even if they know who you are. They don’t call people. You go get your stuff.
So, your stuff ends up in some other airport? Good luck. Pick an airport, any airport. Northwest is unable to tell you where your plane went after you got off. Press them and they’ll hang up on you. Now THAT’s customer service.
Geez, you’d think they’d get some computers or something. Or figure out how to dial a phone.
I am glad that you are the lucky one to have your question solved quickly. Wish the Northwest had the same efficient way to help passengers to re-schedule their flights when the original schedule was canceled by the Northwest.
We bought the round tip tickets around July this year for my parents from Pudong, Shanghai to Salt Lake City, UT. My parents came UT on August 13 and will be return on Feb 4th, 2010. We chose the Northwest airline since the new flight line from Salt Lake City to Tokyo and to Pudong Shanghai was opened on June 1st this year. We are all excited about it since it will make us easy to visit China from Salt Lake City, UT. We spent $1,500 for each to buy the round trip ticket. Now the Northwest closed this flight line. When i called the Northwest airline, I was so frustrated on their service. If the tickets were for me, I would take their re-scheduled flight although the new flight will add one more stop on my trip since I understand their business and I will take lessons from this bad experience. The question is now that these tickets are for my senior parents and they do not know any piece of English. We bought airline tickets from Northwest in the beginning since we would like to make our parent’s trip easy and less stressful. This trip will take more than 20 hours. Currently, when i contacted the Northwest if they can give the passengers some credit so that my family member can travel with my parents to the first stop in USA. They told us there is no credit for the re-scheduled flight. Then I asked if we can ask for refunding the tickets. They told us that we can get the tickets refunded but they reminded me that one-way trip ticket is much expensive than the round-trip tickets and i may not get any money back to buy the return-ticket from another airline. I asked them to tell me how much percentage we can get refunded under this situation because i do not want to loose my money. There is no reason for us to loose money. So far nobody in the customer service office helped me to solve these problems yet and some just handed up the phone or told me they can not tell how much i get back for the refunding tickets. They may not mind to loose my interesting in their business in my whole life. I believe that they will loose more or their future if they would not change their service since they did not care the passengers’ benefits at all.
I am glad that tommytrc had a good experience w/ NWA because it’s probably going to be his last. Here’s my story. My wife and I had tickets to fly to Minnesota from Texas. Unfortunately, a heart attack left us no alternative but to cancel the trip. NWA refused to refund out tickets and instead said we can use a “credit” to re-book another flight within 12 months. Well we just tried to do that and found that our trip would cost more than the original…and then they tacked a $150 “change fee” on top of that! That all meant that we would have to pay an additional $582 per ticket for this new trip. What a scam. Needless to say, I am peeved at this airline and will never again book with them. Those bastards can keep my original $630 and I will badmouth them every chance I get. By the way, we booked with Southwest Airlines and got a better deal.