Northwest Airlines Is Bankrupt…Finally!
The fact that Northwest Airlines is filing for bankruptcy should come as no surprise to anyone who has had the privilege of flying with them in the past few years.
My younger brother and I were stranded at the Minneapolis airport for hours thanks to the rank incompetence of Northwest’s Reagan National employees.
Heck, even Congress demanded that the airline industry shape up after Northwest stranded thousands of their “customers” on the runway for up to 11 hours without food, working toilets, etc. back in 1999.
Northwest has conceded it made a mistake when it tried to keep planes flying during the New Year’s weekend blizzard. As a result, more than 75 airplanes, many full of passengers, were stuck on the ground in Detroit, either having arrived or already taxied out onto the field when the flights were canceled.
Besides the lack of food and drink, airplane lavatories became inoperable, travelers were forced to use the expensive in-flight phones instead of their own cellular phones, and some crew members prohibited passengers from walking around the cabin.
Fifty-five-year-old Marti Sousanis of San Francisco says when she stood up a few times to relieve back pain, a Northwest flight attendant threatened to have her arrested.
…
Tales from passengers trapped on Northwest flights at Detroit’s airport on Jan. 2 and 3:
Jill Hall sat on the ground for nine hours en route to Phoenix before returning to the gate.
Comment: ‘No food. No beverages. That really made us mad.’Robert Kruse Jr.’s flight to Detroit landed — then took eight hours to reach the gate.
Comment: ‘I thought about calling 911 and declaring a hostage situation.’John Moorehead, bound for Philadelphia, sat on ground for 11 hours before the flight was canceled.
Comment: ‘The pilot kept coming on with announcements. After a while, it
sounded like lies.’
As one internet commenter has stated:
It is hardly novel to knock an airline…especially an American carrier…and say their service sucks. Naturally, we would never speak in such unprofessional terms.
However…
Northwest sucks.
So the question is begged: How can one airline suck so bad that they can stand out…or even just be noticed…among the myriad of airlines? The answer is in the sardines.
No, not sardines as in the food they don’t serve on the airlines anymore. Sardines as in the manner in which economy class passengers are poured into seats designed for the comfort of anorexic midgets.
Yup. The sooner that Northwest Airlines disappears the better.
38 Responses to “Northwest Airlines Is Bankrupt…Finally!”
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Well, couldn’t you just not take Northwest flights?
Ha! You’ve never bought a ticket on Hotwire!
Northwest is the principal reason that I don’t use Hotwire anymore (you buy the ticket without knowing the airline you’ll be flying with).
agree, NORTHWEST SUCKS!! If this website didn’t exist, I would have created one myself. I had to laugh when I Googled NORTHWEST SUCKS and this popped up first.
I live in a NWA hub city, which will no longer be, if a majorityof people who fly NW feel the same way I do, becuase there will be no Northwest due to people refusing to use thier services.
I will in my future travels, pay more and even connect if need be, in order to avoid this airline and their complete and utter lack of any kind of customer service. Here are my experiences with this joke of an airline…..
We just returned from a family trip to Orlando which started out a bad experience(at least the flight parts). The skycab guy at Minneapolis was such a complete ass and jerk to us, he’s lucky I didn’t belt him one. The flight attendants on the leg to Detroit weren’t much better. Apparently only the right side of the plane is allowed beverage service. My husband was on that side, and my two kids and I were on the left. Somehow our side of the plane didn’t receive any beverages, nor any apologies, or reasons why. ?!?!?!?!? HELLO!?!?! Then we get to Detroit with not much time to spare to catch our connecting flight that was to depart from another gate. We scrambled off of the plane from MPLS doing the OJ Simpson through the terminal to the gate our flight to Orlando was to be at according to our boarding passes, only to read that that gate was departing to Newark!! So off to the display montiors to find out that the plane we just got off of, was the exact plane that was heading to Orlando. Now wouldn’t you think that they might have mentioned that over the PA system on the plane? Running through airports with a 5 and 8 year old at 8:30AM is not the funnest activitiy in the world.
Upon our return from Orland to Mpls, we checked in with the Skycab again, but the e-ticket kiosk outside didn’t work. Fortuanately he was able to check our bags at least, but instructed us to try one of the e-ticket check in’s inside. Of course, those didnt’ work either, and instructed us to have an agent assist us. WELL….there were two agents at the check in area, to help about 250 people! One was a ditz, the other a HAG! I of course, got the HAG, which also turned out to be a ditz. After standing in a disorganized line and watching this woman berate and treat people completely rudely for nearly 1/2 hour, it was finally my turn–although I was a little scared after witnessing her “customer service skillsâ€. It took her 15 minutes to get our boarding passes(!?!?!). I walked over to my family to start handing them out, only to realize mine wasn’t mine. It was Shirley Carlson’s!! So back I went to the dreaded line full of disgruntled passengers wondering why in the hell they have been waiting so long. Fortuanately, as I mentioned to the group ahead of me that the woman was not only rude, but stupid(explained why I was back in line, and a little nervous, as now my flight was to depart in 1/2 hour) they kindly let me ahead of them, as well as the next few folks did. When I stepped up to the counter with my boarding passes in hand, the HAG asked me, “NOW WHAT?†When I told her she gave me the wrong boarding pass, she blamed me that I must have booked my tickets seperately. (BY THE WAY–THEY WERE ON THE SAME CONFIRMATION #, SHE SCREWED UP!) At any rate, I am sure Ms. Carlson didn’t book her ticket with my husband and kids….Fortuanately, it only took her a couple of minutes to produce the correct boarding pass. We made it to our departing gate with about 5 minutes to spare. This was a good example of why to give yourself plenty of time. Had I not realized the boarding pass was incorrect until the security point, we surely would have missed our plane…..and we arrived at the airport 1 1/2 early!!
The last complaint I have is somewhat petty, wouldn’t have bothered me had the other experiences not occured. It was the baggage claim in Mpls. There were two carousels for NW, and it appeared about 5 or more flights all waiting for their bags.
Carousel 14 said our flight, along with several others would be coming here. We waited and waited, only to see a few bags. Meanwhile, a woman coming from Chicago stated that her luggage was to be on that carousel as well, but came down Carousel 13. So we turned around to look at that one….they must have put ALL of the flights luggage on that one, becuase it was sooooo full of layers of luggage it was virtually impossible to pull of your suit cases. We joked that the employess HAVE to be doing this on purpose to piss off the customers. Oh well, we made it there and back safely I guess. But I will go out of my way to NEVER fly with those jerks again!! —Oh, a little side note, we did have a VERY nice flight crew from Memphis to Mpls.
i used to work for thsi gawdawful carrier…..its just worse now….as in Northworst.
I flew on December 23rd, 2006 with Northwest airlines. Upon arriving at the counter I was informed that I could not be permitted to carry any luggage onto the plane. I informed the woman at the counter that I had my laptop in the bag and that I would be worried about it breaking if being checked.
I was informed that the laptop would be OK and that I would have nothing to worry about. The laptop was in a carry-on luggage bag surrounded by clothes a pillow which is how I usually fly. I figured she was right and checked it.
Upon arriving at my destination I checked out my laptop to find that they had shattered the screen and busted the wheels off my luggage as well.
When I called Northwest Airlines, I was informed that nothing is covered under damaged luggage policies. I was then told to see some woman named Susan at Bloomington, IL’s Airport when I arrived home. When I did I had a prepared speech stating that there was no way that one of her employees would have told me this and that she would not process any claim to get the screen on my laptop fixed.
you are an absolute moron if you checked your laptop.you deserve what you got. by the way..nwa DOES NOT FLY TO BLOOMINGTOM. Its their airlink partner.
Guys northwest airlines is not worth flying even if it’s the last flight in this world, well frankly I don’t know who sucks more the airline or its employees. They r rude, uneducated, insulting, racist. Every time u asked them for something the response wud be “huh … huh and more huh “ !!! Am a technical guy and travel to the US every 3 months frm Asia. The northwest employees in my flight NW34 frm Amsterdam to Mumbai were the worst u cud ever come across. They were shabby and extremely rude esp a guy who looked more like the WWF wrestlers and thought / behaved exactly like them. He was literally throwing food trays to ppl and wudnt listen to even simple request like vegan food or water. The sooner this airlines shuts the better. Never fly NW folks unless ur ready to take on the rude staff on board.
Northwest lost my reservation and now the flight is full and my trip cancelled. I have a confirmation number and I even gave them my credit card # and they said it was processed but when I called to check (didn’t get an email) they told me they have no record of payment. But they didn’t let me know that and now my flight is full and too expensive. I was trying to use my World Perks miles and now I can’t.
Yikes. Crazy story. It is sometimes hard to believe that Northwest Airlines sucks that bad…but they do.
Yea, i agree with kumar, NW is rude / arrogant and the sooner it shuts the better.
Wow. NWA has really gone downhill. For a week now I have simply tried to call to get a seat assignment. (I try pretty hard to get a aisle as I use restroom frequently) Every calls ends with a message that says they have extremely high call volume and it hangs up. I finally lied and said I wanted to make a new reservation. Amazingly rude lady. Then to web support, guy puts me on hold for 45 minutes, then transfers me to reservations. Another rude lady that tells me to call support. I explained support had sent me there. She said, “your not gunna get anything from me. try support again or don’t… up to you” Now I am hold again. Seem like symptoms of very short staffed organization. Scares me to fly with a company that is cutting costs to the point of automatically hanging up on people that are not buying tickets.
flight cancelled Fri. Couldnt get me on any of 3 flights said I would be stuck at airport until Tues or Wednesday. Involunterelly fly back to my departing city after being told they would refund my ticket. Well they will but only the portion of miles I did not use !!!! Nice Lie ! Plus the rude operator and the extremely hi calls bs forever here also ! 702 420 6282 #3 #2 was down as always !
Rude employees. Uneducated. Racist.
My wife just called to say that she’d been escorted off a NWA plane by the police! Now, she’s a law professor who flies frequently and is an elite NWA member who had been upgraded to first class. And she’s an Asian-American.
How did this happen?
Apparently she go into this situation because before takeoff the stewardess (a typical NWA “big nurse” type) demanded that she put her medium-sized purse in the overhead compartment instead of holding it in her lap, which she has never had to do in hundreds of flights as she explained to the stewardess, who rudely refused to listen to her; all to no avail. My wife did say the (apparently) fatal words: “what kind of first class service is this?” But no shouting, no hysterics.
In the end my wife agreed, but had to go the bathroom and took her purse with her. When she came out, the police were waiting to escort her off the plane! The pilot didn’t even bother to talk to her.
The police were sympathetic, as was the gate agent, and she’s booked for the next flight, but I have to ask whether a bankrupt airline can afford to treat its elite members this way!!!
NWA service must be the very worst. I don’t use the sord racist casually, but that stewardess’s behavior is hard to understand without resort to such terms in this case.
Jim,
Wow. That stinks.
Unfortunately, it’s not unsurprising given the fact that we’re talking about Northwest Airlines.
NWA needs to be shut down quick, their employees dont even show up for work at the same time as the other airline employees do, its totally pathetic. When you book with NWA you are basically booking a “mystery flight”, which with either be delayed or canceled without notice. I can not believe the flight attendant threatened to have that woman arrested for standing up in that kind of situation. Personally Id rather be arrested than spend hours trapped in a plane on a runway like a prisoner in a jail cell, except prisoners get food and water and are allowed to stand up in their cells. This is despicable!!
First time and last time for everything. I’ll never fly Northwest again. There wasn’t one thing they didn’t screw up. All flights late, extra stops and layovers, lost luggage on both ends. What a bunch of loosers.
Amen!
My family and I tried to fly to Columbia, SC via NWA recently, only to have our connecting flight cancelled 15 minutes before boarding due to a lack of crew to fly the plane (and cancelled several other flights at the same time for the same reason). NWA would not help by trying to put us on another airline and were unwilling to loose the fare. SO they offered to take a day of our vacation and route us all over NWA’s scheduled flights to get us to our destination. And of course, they lost one of our bags. NWA is a bunch of cheating liars who will do anything to get you to buy a ticket, but nothing to honor it once it is purchased. Buyer beware!
their stock is down to $17 a share..
their employee moral is at rock bottom
why would they want to go the extra mile when they took a 40% paycut when Steenland took a 26M bonus..
thats why a family member quit after 18 years… rather than being treated like a doormat
and the new rule of thumb is not to fly for the last 10 days of the month/ else your flight gets cancelled
I would like everyone to know that the Northwest Airline ( NWA ) site errored and booked the wrong date on my flight. When I complained the employees kept me on hold for 2.5 hours and then did nothing to remedy the problem. If I were a potential passenger on Northwest Airline I would worry for my safety. These folks cannot keep there website running much less a complex aircraft.
Perryd,
Ouch! That sucks. Welcome to the club of maltreated.
I had the usual North Worst Experience yesterday, August 13, 2007. No need for tedious details. Questions:
1. I flew this airline out of ignorance. If I’d paid more attention to the ‘net I could have avoided this whole hassle. Are there really enough ignorant people (like me) to keep this airline in business?
2. How can the dissatisfied NWA ex-customers organize something like a boycott?
Chris,
1. Apparently so.
2. Good idea.
I hate Northwest. I fly a lot (basically weekly) and this airline is circling the drain. Service just sucks. Flights are always over-booked and they’ve jammed things so tight you need to “jig-saw” with other passengers to even be bearably uncomfortable. They screwed me this week. Incoming flight was thirty minutes late due to storms and I had to make a connection in Minneapolis. Fortunately my connecting flight was leaving from the immediately adjacent gate. The two planes were literally twenty feet apart–wingtip to wingtip on the tarmac. My plane was on the ground at the gate with seven minutes to spare. You can imagine my shock and dismay when I got to my connecting flight’s gate only to find it locked and with no gate agent in sight. She was down the jetway sending the flight on its way! There was even another couple at the door waiting–they had gotten there several minutes ahead of me. She had no apologies when she got out, only stating that she had no choice–Northwest Airlines policy dictates that they MUST leave on time, with no exceptions. YEAH RIGHT! When was the last time you were on a NW flight that left the gate at precisely the scheduled departure time? She obviously gave our seats away to standby passengers and wanted that flight out of the gate as soon as possible, knowing that we were arriving momentarily. She stuck us on standby on a flight four hours later with no apologies. Standby! I’m an elite WorldPerks member and fly business class most of the time! Absolutely unbelievable. And try to call anyone to get resolution. Talk about a run-around. So far all I’ve got to show for it is a $5 food voucher and about an hour of hold-time and talking to people who have no clue. At least I found this reassuring piece on their website:
A Letter from Douglas Steenland, President and Chief Executive Officer:
“Safety. Reliability. Comfort. Fairness. Courtesy. Honesty. These promises are what you should expect of any airline and they are the cornerstones of our commitment to you… We will work hard to provide superior service, but when we fail to do so, be assured that we will work even harder to make things right for you as quickly and conveniently as possible.”
WHAT A JOKE! Please Northwest, I plead with you. Pull the plug and give it up. For those of us who are stuck living near an airport where you are the dominant carrier we can’t take this anymore. Die already and let another carrier fill the void. Maybe they will have at least a modicum of service.
Northwest has reached new lows this summer and we are all paying for it! You can’t be guaranteed a seat assignment even after you have purchased a ticket. And, if you are going to a heavily traveled market such as LA or SF — good luck!
I have called, written, and done everything but stand on my head to get a message to management, but Mr. Steenland has greater security than President Bush when it comes to accessing his office! We have it bad being Minnesotans as they have us over a barrel.
Thank God I sold my NWA stock and pulled out of funds with said investments. Hey, it is time: Just Say Nay to NWA!
If I had only met all of you a month ago I could have avoided my NWA debacle. I just returned from my nephews wedding in Texas and even a day later, my blood still boils. I fly about 4 times a year and Westchester County NY is my airport of choice. The flights down Westchester/Reagan/Dallas and worked by USAir and Republic air respectively was quite pleasant. The arrived on time. Crews were friendly and my daughter and I arrived in Dallas 10 minutes early. After a great 4 days catching up with relatives, the first signs of trouble began. While printing out my boarding passes,I noticed they had changed our seats putting my daughter and I 9 and 4 rows apart for Our journey. Arriving atBush/Houston airport, I was easily able to change my seats back with the extra bonus of having the bulkhead seats for the final leg. The trip from Houston to Detroit was pleasant arriving on time. We checked and saw that our conecting flight was “On time” and proceeded to make the long walk from terminal A to terminal C. We killed the better part of our layover eating lunch, arriving at our gate 15 minutes befor boarding. It was then that we learned our flight had been cancelled due to maintenence problems. After waiting our turn for the one person who was rebooking passengers, I was informed that there was “No problem sir, we’ve re booked you on the same flight tomorrow” I then informed the dear lady in a steadily rising voice that this would not be an option. After checking out all other flights, and being refused the option of another carrier we settled on a flight to JFK boarding in 15 minutes. As I turned to go, I asked the “service” rep if she had transferred my bags. She angerly grabs my ticketfolder back, proceedst o type away and literaly throws it back at saying “there you go” We made the long walk back to gate A and finally boarded our flight to JFK. We arrived on time, but had to wait 45 minutes for a gate. We finally deplaned and made our way to baggage claim. Of course the baggage never made itand NWA in their never ending commitment to service had one agent handling claims. After waiting 20 minutes we filled out our claim. I was flatly refused transportation back to my car at Westchester airport as my cancelled flight was now listed as weather related. Weather related? Like there was some kind of monster storm that was brewing 40 miles to the north affecting Westchester while Queens was sunny and 85. I grabbed my claim receipt and stomped away to arrange transportation on my own. We finally made it home at 11:45 PM.almost 8 hrs later then scheduled. As of this writing, while I have received my daughters bag. Mine is still in NWAland. I’ve been on flights that were cancelled/delayed. And while the solutions haveoften been less then desirable. I have never met with the arrogance that I received from the NWA employees. It’s like they project their ineptitude onto you. You don’t have to kick me in the head twice. I’ll take a Greyhound bus befor I ever put my fanny on a NWA flight again.
Northwest Airlines deserves to go out of business…and, the sooner the better!! I’m convinced that they absolutely DO NOT CARE about anyone…especially the customer. Mr. President of NWA…You deserve to be fired. I don’t know how you can sleep at night.
If only there was another option for people who travel. If some enterprising, creative people can design an alternative, please do so. It’s truly amazing how many people have been treated like animals by employees that have NO concept of what customer service is…I can only hope that you’ll all get yours in the end.
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU AT NWA!!!
Amen CLS!
Northwest Airlines sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To sum up my nightmare they now charged me 4 X more the ticket price. I had an emergency to see a dying relative so I booked with Expedia. Initially my ticket was $1122 for roundtrip flight (NWA) I changed it once I knew the on/or about 1 week later ON-LINE @ their web site with the help from their customer service. Once I arrive back home I notice that I have now paid an additional $1900. I attempted to resolve the problem by calling the customer service numberous occations and no help just pass the buck was the anwser. I went to my bank to file an dispute in hope to have someone explain the costs. 1 week later my bank shared an email that states pretty much NWA charged correctly and how I agreed to the charges on their web site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I reluctantly ended a personal 20 year boycott of NorthWorst Airlines after watching them unload all our baggage at Detroit and load Cargo containers in its place. On Arrival at our detstination, we were told by the baggage office that we would have to come back later to retreive our luggage. When we did, it was simply dumped out on the floor with no security so just anyone could grab what they wanted. A complaint letter to NW went unacknowledged.
20 years later, I find that little has changed. Surly and completely unhelpful agents, and a new low - a “Coach Choice” seat fee. If you find yourself doomed to a center seat, you can now PAY to request an aisle or window seat. It appears that the prices vary based on seat location and the number of monied suckers in the vicinity.
Besides the dismal experience inside the airport, one on board their airplanes, I discovered trays that had clearly not been cleaned in some time, dirty lavatories, and stern, unfriendly flight “attendants.”
While I was not threatened with arrest as others who have posted their experiences, I can only image that a ride in a police car and a visit to a jail might be a cleaner and more comfortable experience than traveling on NWA.
I can only hope that they do the right thing and disappear.
This is a first for a post of this kind for me.
As you know, the first impression of anything is key. That also goes with the takeoff portion of a flight. In my many, many years of flying if ever concerned about the actual flight it would have been during the landing portion and not the takeoff. However, with NWA yesterday what we experienced was something I would never care to again. I’ll start at the beginning of the ordeal. I was traveling with three of my children, ages 7, 8 and 12.
We were “trying” to return from Fort Walton Beach, Florida to Oklahoma City on Sunday, November 25th on a 6:03 a.m. flight. Standing in line at 5 a.m. to check in I eventually heard the word “rebooked.” With no P.A. system the customer service rep finally came through the line in a quiet voice to let us know they had a maintenance problem LAST NIGHT with the de-icer on our plane. Rather than fix it LAST NIGHT or have the crew do it overnight, they were just now working on flying someone in at 11 a.m. to start the repairs (Flight 1425). I took the kids and we drove around town killing seven hours. Of course, that turned into a 1:00 p.m. departure. I was already a bit on edge about allowing my family to fly on an airline which seemed so extremely unprofessional. Safety was a definite concern, but we boarded the plane.
The pilot was also made to wait all this time. When we left the gate he seemed in a major hurry. He started taxiing and then really accelerating. During the acceleration he made a (much too quick)left turn onto the main runway. Rather than making a smoothe, gradual, professional acceleration on this runway, he did an abbreviated version and lifted the nose up for takeoff at the most unnecessary, extreme angle I have EVER experienced! It almost made me physically ill. During this point, he banked abruptly and extremely to the left (90 degrees?). I honestly thought we were in serious trouble. I closed my eyes and prayed. I stated, “What is going on with the pilot?!” The others passengers all around me were also in shock and asking similar questions. You should have seen the look on everyone’s faces. It was the scariest flight I have ever experienced in my many years flying all types of airlines and aircraft. It set the stage for a very tense hour and five minute trip to Memphis through clouds and fog. I have never been so relieved to land in my life.
Upon deplaning I rented an Avis car and loaded my family for an 8 1/2 hour flight to Oklahoma City rather than continue on the connecting leg. Although it was an extremely painful drive through rain and eventually sleet / snow at least I knew I would get us there safely. I vow to NEVER AGAIN risk our lives with the shenanigans and unprofessional behavior of pilots such as these representing this failing airline.
Anyone reading this, not only is poor customer service, bad bookings and dirty airplanes an issue, think long and hard about your safety before ever settling to fly this airline.
Clairen,
Wow. That stinks.
So sorry you had to learn the same way I did that Northwest is the worst airline ever.
NorthWorst would be a nice comment after my flight from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, SD, here is what happend
I have a very small coach purse 8 x 11 maybe and a cheap laptop case that barely fits a 15″ laptop. I am an elite member because I fly to South and North Dakota most of the time(no choice)I was walking on to the plane and the flight attendant refuses to let me on unless I get back on the ramp and smoosh my purse into the laptop case. I explain that I have medication in my purse and that it is a cream in a plastic tube for psoriasis, she demands that I squish it anyway so I do and I could not get the laptop case closed but she let me on. Several people behind me get on with two items much bigger than my two little ones that both would have fit under the seat. Here is the kicker, a gentleman with a large electric guitar and a huge backpack gets on board, not only did this flight attendant not say anything but because he was in the bulk head she actually helped him find a spot for both items…..neither would fit in the overhead or under a seat. Not wanting to get kicked off the plane I did not say anything until the end of the flight. This flight attendant told me that she could allow whatever she wanted to…..Hello, I had medication. Needless to say I am out $400.00 worth of medication and a $300.00 purse. I called customer care who could have cared less and when I requested a call back from the supervisor of the flight attendant I was told that was impossible. I told them that if they would not help me that I would report them to the FAA, no help and a report has been filed. I went 4 days without medication that I needed, how do I get through to anyone above the rude customer care people?
Here is another one… I have flown to Sioux City Iowa now for the past few years for the Christmas Holiday. The ticket price is horrendous but could be worth it if I had gotten the service I paid for.
Last year we arrived at Minneapolis on time and proceeded to the gate for the puddle jumper. The plane was there.. long story short, no crew ever showed up (which they admitted)… The next/last flight out was full. And there were no more open seats on the flights to Sioux City until two days After Christmas. So we spent the night at our expense, rented a car at our expense and drove to Sioux City. When we later contacted NWA they then claimed bad weather is why the flight was cancelled… BS.
We arrived at Fort Lauderdale airport after having received multiple email messages that the plane was an hour late. Upon arriving a hour before the new scheduled departure time we we asked how we were to make the 55 minute layover to make the one and only flight to Sioux City; we were assured three times they would hold that plane for us. So we proceeded on the flight. Upon arriving, the NWA gate attendant at the arrival gate had already rebooked dozens of passengers because they did not hold any of the flights for any of the passengers. After discussions with other passengers on that place we found out many were promised that their planes would be held. I do have to give them this; at least they took the time to rebook and print vouchers for everyone. And, this time they paid for our hotel. However, arriving at the designated hotel, a Radisson, we discovered that they did not give everyone free hotel rooms… I guess they remembered they had screwed us the previous year. The next morning we proceeded on to Sioux city a day late.
The story does not end yet.
We were scheduled to depart 12/26. Thanks to the notification emails that your plane is late” we knew we were in trouble. We called…. we got a live voice thanks to elite status I am sure. She said the plane was broken down in Boseman…. hmmm the Sioux City plane comes from Minneapolis… not Boseman Montana… It did not arrive in time to make the connection back to Fort Lauderdale, so we were not even going to risk another nite in Minneapolis… The kind and friendly (seriously) reservationist booked us on the twenty seventh. Soooooooooooooooooooo….
The next morning, two hours before leaving the house to arrive at 1 1/2 hours early for the 1:00pm flight we got another email that the plane was over an hour late…. We show up at the airport at 12:30….
A tarmac jockey was tending the checkin counter… he informed us we had to have been there thirty minutes before the original scheduled departure time, the emails meant nothing and that his name was Nathan if we wanted to turn him in. He was a nasty person to me, and my mother in-law.
THE KICKER IS….. inlaws were out loading our luggage into the car and as I am walking out of the airport they page us to board the plane… can you believe that. Sioux City airport is very very small, so there are few employees. I run to the security line and tell a guy to tell the gate attendant that we have been there almost an hour and were not allowed to check baggage… blah blah blah… We never saw any of the NWA employees… I am sure they were hiding having coffee and donuts somewhere….
THANK GOD FRONTIER STARTED FLYING TO SIOUX CITY LAST SUMMER….
Everyone should sell NWA stock short… there is no way they will ever make it even after having filed for bankruptcy…..
Ben,
Wow. Incredible story. Sorry you’ve had the same experience as the rest of us with Northwest Airlines.
Sad!
When I read about the ignorant, rude, uneducated F/A’s, I have to wonder if it’s a relative of mine.
She is the rudest, most narcissistic, bossiest, uneducated, tactless, and crass person I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.
She claimed she did so well in flight attendant school, they let her out two weeks early (before the lessons on how to save a life.)
I forgot to add she’s a pathological liar.
I don’t fly NW simply for the fact that they hired her. After reading the stories about the personnel of NW, I see that she is par for the course.
I imagine they have armies of her ilk parading up and down the aisles, assaulting people’s knees with their half-empty beverage carts.
My first ever journey with NWA came out to be a bitter experience. Let
me just narrate the story in short.
I started from Seoul to Detroit by NWA flight on 18th of Feb 2008. the
ticket was booked few weeks in advance with all iterinary and meal
preferences confirmed. After flight took off Incheon airport, the flight
attendant came with polite smile and told me your meal is confirmed. And
she wished me a good flight. But to my wonder when actual food came with
VGML label and my name on tray, what i found inside the tray there was
full bowl of Chicken which was later confirmed by same attendant. though
the lable was confirming food to be VGML. Attendant said she doesn;t
have any replacement for this, however she tried to help me with food
from business class which again was not vegetarian. My journey was 15
hours long and such careless treatment and that too my first ever
journey with NWA, i got shocked. To put more salt on my wound she
offered me vouchers of 10$ , so that I can go and eat after 15 hours of
flight, till then I was expected to remain starved.
With this experience I have decided never to travel by NWA again in my
life.(i Normally avoid North America based airlines in general-as many
of them are bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy)
I often use European , gulf or other wonderful Asian airlines like
SIA, cathay,Asiana.
It made me feel that these north American based airlines are just
pathetic as I heard in terms of customer service and poor administration
. Even when I demanded feedback form onboard she advised me to go and
check website to login my comments on nwa.com
Vegetarians please be-aware that you are not in good hands if you ever
want to travel by NWA for long haul flights. Other observations I made
in terms of dirty restrooms, aged attendants ,dirty covers on sheet,
limited food, limited drinks(that too if you pay separate for drinks),
broken headphones. of course the leased smiles on the faces were bit of
air in desert.
I wish this type of airline do wonderful business by ripping off their
customers who has little or no respect for vegetarians.
Would you like to travel by NWA after reading my terrible experience.
Good bye NWA, you don;t get my business, I would take normal Asian or
European airlines who treat me as normal passenger with respect. I
travel 5 times across the globe for which NWA don;t get any share out of
my budget.
Finally after all the troubles and miserable journey-after 2 weeks I got
a reply from their customer service who said this concern has been
forwarded to director food service. In that email agent promised me to
send vouchers worth one hundred dollar for future travel ( but for me no
use, since I would never venture into NWA again)
NWA is a big joke specially when you fly over different continents.
Please steer clear from it, else be prepared tol loose your peace of
mind plus you will starve. probably you might get some vouchers as
compensation of your starvation and sugar coated lip service from their
customer service agents.
I feel NWA and similar airlines cannot be competent and hence their
business sucks. It makes them one of worst airline to fly .
Vegetarians just be alert that they would call your meal preferences as
very special dietary need, as you don’t eat dead animals ( however you
may be vegetarian from your birth which is nothing special, as there are
over 500million vegetarians are on this planet). This airline is hardly
educated enough to even respect vegetarian customers because they don’t
need their business, so they practically don’t deserve our business.
Just avoid NWA by all means if you do not want to get pissed off. For
same price you can fly much better airline with lot more respect and
dignity.