Complain about a product or service

Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines • Ticketing snafus • Luggage lost, stolen, destroyed • General hostility • Disgruntled Employees • Northwest vs. KLM • Pray for food --- News • Delta, Northwest Complete Merger • Delta, Northwest Merger Faces Heavy Chop • Troubled Northwest Strikes New Deal With Pilots • A Seething Summer of Discontent for Northwest Airlines • Northwest Passengers Face Uncertain Summer • Pilot Shortages Plague Northwest Passengers • Machinists Pact May Head Off Northwest Airline Strike • Northwest Hopes to Cancel Employee Contracts • Delta, Northwest File for Bankruptcy • Northwest Flying Despite Strike • Northwest Warns Of Bankruptcy • Strike Looms At Northwest • Northwest Seeks Replacement Flight Attendants • Northwest Pushes Up Fares

An icy fossil that survives only because Southwest apparently dislikes cold weather, Northwest is perhaps the most rigid U.S. airline when it comes to making even the slightest accommodation to the customers who keep it in business.

The complaints in this section illustrate how unnecessarily miserable travel can be if one chooses the wrong carrier.

Here are a few of the more recent consumer comments:

Fumin of Madison WI (02/15/09)
My family had flew two separate trips with Northwest Airline in December 08, both trips travel experiences can be summarized as careless customer services, poor luggage handling and lack of consistent in-flight service standards. 1. Irresponsible customer service representatives at Detroit (DTW). My wife was scheduled to fly from Columbus, OH to Madison, WI on December 26th 2008, due to weather condition her connection flight from DTW to Madison was canceled. The NW Airlines agent re-booked her onto two different useless flights. First one is next day from Columbus to Madison, connecting in Cincinnati. Note, at this time she is already at DTW and the agent somehow didnt book her a flight out from DTW. Whats the point of flying out of the original departing city at this time?

Second flight is 3 days later, on Dec 29th from DTW to Madison. Note, we will be flying to China on the 29th out of DTW, there was no point for her to fly back to Madison that day. Since both of us will be flying to China on the 29th, we decided to let my wife stay at a hotel near DTW so she doesnt miss her next flight. The NW agent told her they will give her check-in luggage so she can have her overnight items available. But after one hour of waiting at luggage claim, a different NW agent told her that the terminal she came from has already been closed long ago, no luggage came from there at all. The lack of communication among NW staff had caused great inconvenience to their customers. Note, this was around mid-night and there were many others waiting for their luggage too. The extra charge for check-in luggage seem to be extremely unfair at this point.

2. Poor luggage handling. My brand new suitcase was broken on the way back from China. I understand the possibility of damaging check-in luggage, but I found it to be quite ridiculous when I had the Fragile sign taped on both sides of the luggage. If this is how NW workers handle fragile luggage, what do they do with regular luggage? When I talked to NW representative in Madison, all she told me was that it was not covered by company policy. She didnt even bother saying sorry of what has happened. Again, the NW staff seem to be completely careless regarding their customers.

3. Lack of consistent in-flight service standards. On the way back from China, Jan 14th NW flight 20, the meal services were not satisfactory. Since our seats were towards the back of the serving order, they almost ran out of food for passengers. The flight attendant did finally provide us food, but for both meals we did not receive our choices. Between two trips we spent a total of 2423 on air fair.

We found our travel experiences with Northwest Airlines to be completely disappointing this time and we are even more upset by the careless attitude of NW employees. The message Customers First from NW Airlines was not reflected by services. In todays stiff competition among airlines, the low quality services we have received from your company will make us hesitate to fly with Northwest again in the future.

Toni of Hastings, PA January 29, 2009

Toni of Hastings PA (01/29/09)
First of all, the airplane broke down. We were an hour and fourty minutes late leaving Pittsburgh. We missed all of our connecting flights to Hawaii. When rescheduling the flights, they rescheduled them for the next day; which would have taken two days off of our vacation. They only changed the flights because I insisted they do so.

Also, the luggage was a day late, and when it came, we found that one of our American Tourister pieces was smashed. We couldn't pull the handle up and the wheels were smashed as well.

Next, my travel companion is 6'4. They crammed us in a seat with no leg space for 5 hours, and he literally sat with his knees under his chin. Needless to say he didn't sleep. When I spoke to the person at the check in desk, asking for a seat with more room, she was VERY rude. She asked me didn't I know I could pick my seat 90 days prior to departure. No I didn't know that! Thank you for taking the time to read this, I just wanted to let it be known that not only did I have a problem with the flight, but also with some of the employees at the airport. I was emotionally destraught.

-Broken suitcase *damaged beyond repair.

Laura of Sidney, MT January 25, 2009

Laura of Sidney MT (01/25/09)
A representative of NWA called me at 1 am on the day of my scheduled 11:25 am flight to Minot, ND from Philadelphia, PA (4 Jan 2009) to tell me that my flight had been canceled due to irregular operations. My two fellow travelers and I were re-booked on a flight that was scheduled to depart at 4:11 pm the same day. NWA refused to explain what irregular operations were. In fact I called to check since the first representative had such a thick accent that I could barely understand him. All anyone at NWA would say was due to irregular operations , my flight was canceled.

I checked on the NWA website that day (Jan 4, 2009). A NWA flight was in fact enroute from PHL to MSP that day. My flight had been NW 2019; the flight that replaced it was 9911 which had departed PHL slightly late but had the exact same scheduled departure time (11:25) as my original NW 2019. My original connecting flight to Minot NW 1427 had normal operations that day and was not canceled. Interestingly, my canceled NW 2019 (now apparently flying as NW 9911), made it to MSP in plently of time for Philadelphia Eagles fans to enjoy the Eagles vs Vikings game in Minneapolis. Seats on this flight were being sold for over a 1000. I actually believe we were bumped from our flight so our seats could be sold for more money to Eagles fans.

When I arrived at the airport in PHL for my 4:11 flight, NWA had changed the departure flight yet again, booking me on a 5:29 pm departing flight. This way, we were compelled to wait even longer at the airport. We finally made it to Minot, ND, arriving after midimight. It was well below zero. At this point we learned that our luggage had not made it to Minot. I had to wait in line for over an hour to fill out paperwork. We finally left the Minot airport at 2am and headed to a motel.

The next day, I had to return to the Minot ariport to pick up my luggage since NWA apparently refused to bring it to me at my home, which was across the state line in Montana. In compensation for bumping us off the flight, resulting in additional food and lodging costs for me as well as delaying our return to school and work, NWA offered three 75.00 vouchers to apologize for losing our luggage. They now blame air traffic control (ATC) problems for the flight cancellation. This would appear to be new after-the-fact excuse unless ATC problems are also known as irregular operations. This offer was made after I contacted them three times and waited 3 weeks. In my opinion, they are playing a game of half-truths and are avoiding providing proper compensation for my financial loss and personal inconvenience.

Extra costs for hotel Extra costs for food Missed day of work for two people Missed day of school for 1 person Personal discomfort (lost luggage, late night) Waste of personal time (waiting for hours in various locations)

Jacqueline of Monona, WI January 21, 2009

Jacqueline of Monona WI (01/21/09)
On Jan. 19, my husband & I were on Flight #239 Detroit-Madison, Wi. No one could understand the safety message because the flight attendant talked too fast & sounded very bored. The other two attendants were very curt & rude to the passengers around us & also to us. The pilot sounded bored too. The other flights we took were fine but this one really turned us off. The flight was a late one and we could hear them talking about the hotel they were gonna stay in.

Very disappointed in the way the flight attendants attended to us and the disrespect we received. They make . We pay for our tickets.

Sonya of San Francisco, CA January 19, 2009

Sonya of San Francisco CA (01/19/09)
On Christmas Day, 2008 I bought two NWA tickets from San Francisco to Barcelona for June of 2009 on the NWA website, but not before talking to a customer service rep on the phone to be sure I would be credited back if lower fares were subsequently published. I was assured multiple times by this woman that the fee for such a change would be 100, so the fare should be more than 100 to make it worth my while.

Lo and behold, I was checking fares online last night (Jan. 18, 2009) and discovered the tickets I had bought were now 202 cheaper than what I paid. When I contacted NWA to arrange my refund, I was told that I would be charged 250 per ticket, not 100. Bait and switch scheme. I have written to them and complained bitterly, but to no avail.

LOST A LOT OF MONEY.

Teresa of N. Chatham, MA January 5, 2009

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