As mentioned before, my last flights with Northwest weren't the smoothest. And, as may seem to be becoming the norm, I had to offer my opinion to Northwest about the day's events. There's a lot of airline problems that I could complain about, but, I typically only write to my favorite airline when it's 'stupid human tricks'. Weather happens, mechanical delays happen....it's when the human element creates a situation, or, makes it worse, that I feel compelled to let NW know about it. For example, I never would have written to complain to NW about the crazy woman last year...that's not their fault, it's the crazy woman's fault.
And I might not write at all if NW wasn't responsive to my complaints; I might just move on and fly some other airline as I can. But, NW is responsive; always there will be a letter saying sorry, and often enough they'll be frequent flyer miles added as an apology. The crazy woman incident earned me 4,000 miles; I didn't ask for them, Northwest just gave them to everyone.....
So, let's delve into last Thursday night's events. I was trying to get home from work in Dayton...I was booked on the last flight to Detroit out of Dayton, leaving at 6:40 pm. This was going to leave me a three hour layover in Detroit, before leaving at 10:30 for Lansing. And nothing went right from the very beginning. I guess the other background is to point out that it snowed like crazy in Minneapolis that day and there were all kinds of delays and cancellations in Northwest's system.
But, the flights from Minneapolis and Detroit to Dayton were running on time.....and Northwest had already made the decision to delay the flight returning to Minneapolis. So, the decision to delay the flight to Detroit by 90 minutes...when they had a plane and crew on the ground waiting to go made little sense...and then finally NW came to their senses and made the decision to send the plane they hand on hand to Detroit. Sadly, those 90 minutes would be important later......
Boarded the plane at 9 pm.....get everyone on board, and they go to close the door, and well, no closey-the-doory. Turns out the flight crew knew this when they left Minneapolis....the door wasn't working quite right, and they needed to close it manually. And to do that, you need a mechanic to fill out the paperwork that allows you to deactivate the motor for the door and close it manually. And of course, in a small airport, they don't have a dedicated mechanic and the contract one had just left the airport to go home for dinner. So, there's 45 minutes waiting for him to return to the airport THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF NW HAD HANDLED THE PREVIOUS 90 MINUTES PROPERLY.
So, everyone's on the plane now, and it's always worse to be sitting in the plane delayed as opposed to be sitting in the airport delayed (the airport personnel prefer you on the plane, under control, the flight crew prefers you, if delayed, in the airport). As people started realizing they weren't going to make their connections, they wanted off. The airport personnel weren't going to go through deplaning and reboarding everyone and made it clear, you came off, you weren't flying out tonight. And about 1/3 of the people took that option. I would have considered it, but, knew, even with a big delay, I still was going to make my last-to-leave-Detroit-airport Lansing connection.
I've been sitting there waiting for that last Lansing flight often enough to know....Northwest frequently will delay that flight if they have people coming in so that they can make the connection. I figure weather's bad and causing havoc in the system, really, my chances are good of making the Lansing flight even with all the delays.
Mechanic finally gets back, NW finally gets approval, off we go. Leave Dayton at 10 pm, scheduled to land at 11 pm.
And of course, unbelievably, the Lansing flight left on-time at 10:30.
Talk with Suzanne, she 'suggests' that I drive home (I'm on the fence, but leaning towards taking the hotel voucher). Suzanne did reconsider and try to call back and tell me just to stay but it was too late, I had left the terminal and was going down to rent a car. 11:30 I get the car (and because I have to rent under the company plan), it's $150 for the one-way-drop-in-Lansing deal. Get dinner(!) drive home. Run into the WORST thunderstorms I've been in a long time (think Vaughn!) at about 1 am, finally get home at 1:20 am.
And Saturday, I take a deep breath, and write Northwest and question the 90 minute delay that caused an additional hour delay and the decision not to hold a flight that I've seen held for others frequently in the past (and hey, I'm Gold Elite now. what the hell!). Also spend a paragraph praising the flight attendant who was a saint during the delay (but added some not so kind words for the pilot, who very obviously blamed the ground ops in Dayton for the problems...I don't care who the problem is, NW is stamped on all of your paychecks)
NW emailed back yesterday. Apologized up and down. Asked me to fax my rental receipt to them. Did that today. Within 20 minutes of sending the fax today, NW emailed back again. They will be sending a check for the $150 for the car. They'll be refunding the cost of the Detroit-Lansing flight I never got on. They'll be giving me 7500 miles as an apology.
Which is why, if you're unhappy, you should make your voice heard.
I get to share Monday and Wednesday night with my good friends at Delta/Northwest next week.......
The most amusing part of the trip, when I think about it? When I was flying to Dayton, I had the big layover in Detroit. And for the first time ever, I could go to the WorldPerks club; I'm Gold Elite man, I've made it.
Completely forgot about it. Walked right by it; just a part of the airport that meant nothing to me.......Won't make that mistake next week! Have to at least check it out!!
