Northwest Airlines Customer Service Complaints - page 2

It has been a total nightmare.The waiting time,the speed of service and the unfriendly staff and supervisors specially Sue Park. Who made me feel like I had committed a crime and repeatedly told me that " sir you are the one who made this reservation not us " Very rude ,totally unfriendly not to mention arrogant and annoying. I had to wait a total of over 5 hours to get a simple matter resolved.Of course after paying over $500.00 for 2 one way domestic flights purchased over 15 days in advance which normally cost around $100.00. Thanks Worthwest and GOODBYEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

NWA lost all four of our pieces luggage on the outbound trans-Atlantic flight and did not return them for two days - we had nothing to wear for two days and no toiletries. On the return trans-Atlantic flight, they lost one of our bags, which they returned very late at night (after 3:00 a.m.) two days later. It had been opened (the TSA approved padlock had been removed), the contents rummaged through, and an expensive item was missing.

We tried calling every possible NWA and Delta Airlines numbers that we could find. At every one of them (both NWA and Delta) we were greeted with recorded messages which in at least one case (Customer Care) automatically hung up on us (some customer care, don't you think?). After much persistence (keying in multiple 0's - didn't know about the #), we managed to speak with several real people. Most of them were uncooperative - many simply spouting off about "company policy" without offering any real help. They want us to take our bag to the airport (some say empty, others with the original contents) to file a report and to show the missing padlock (?) and the missing item (?). Two of the worst people hung up on us. With two exceptions, NWA people referred us to Delta, and Delta people referred us to NWA. We felt like a ping-pong ball at a championship tournament. There were two decent people - one from NWA, the other from Delta - who were sympathetic - one of them described our travel experience with NWA as disastrous - but were unable to provide any help and passed us on to others who were uncooperative and often rude.

One has to wonder how NWA has managed to stay in business with such an abysmal customer care record. No wonder that Delta has acquired NWA. Anytime anyone calls NWA, the recorded message states "Welcome to NWA, part of Delta Airlines." But when it comes to resolving issues, they keep passing customers along in what appears to be a thinly-disguised process of obstacles to discourage customers. Our issue remains unresolved.

Do not accept an Electronic Credit Voucher from NWA if you live in Europe because you cannot use it if you do not have an american credit card. After three long distance calls to customer service in the US I've been told that once the credit voucher information is input you have to give them a US credit card number eventhough the total is 0. If you put in a european address it will throw you out of the NW site and into the KLM site which does not give you the option to use the voucher. Customer service suggested I ask someone in the US to give me their credit card info!

Is this some kind of sick joke. I've tried contacting customer support and customer service and the # for a res supervisor and could not reach a live person. The recordings said that due to large volumn they could not take my call at this time. I am travelling with a tour to Africa and they booked this airline. I would never have booked Northwest nor will ever again.

I tried to book a flight yesterday but I wanted to make sure I sat near my husband on return flight (his flight was made in Brussels and he was arriving to Amsterdam 3 days before me but we were returning again.) The reservation person couldn't find his flight probably because it was made with KLM, anyway I asked that she make the reservation and that I would call back with his ticket number when I got it. She told me you couldn't hold the reservation. Next morning, I called and the nwa reservation person forwarded me to Delta because she couldn't find my husband's reservation and she couldn't add my Delta Frequent Flyer number...well when I was connected with Delta he gave me an amount for a faire that was much more than the night before and he switched me to NWA reservation person. This woman was great. SHE could add my Delta #, she found my husband's ticket and then she tells me after booking the ticket that I have 24 hours to cancel or change. I then realized I could have madethe reservation the night before. So the incompetencyof the reservationist from the night before cost me an additional $170...not happy about that.

I purchased a one way ticket from Accra, Ghana to Cincinnati, Ohio and for various reasons the ticket could not be used on the scheduled date (Hospital). I subsequently changed the departure date on the ticket 3 times at a cost of $100 each time. I finally determined that it was best to just cancel it. Guess What? I found out the ticket was nonrefundable and nontransferable! Customer Service said "Sorry Charlie" live with it, and that I should not have been able to change it at all. When I called to cancel the ticketing agent said it could be canceled at a charge of $100. Customer Service said they sent me a letter, which I never received, stating this. Botton line is I contributed $1421 plus the three changes at $100 each to Northwest Airlines bottom line and they didn't even buy me a drink or dinner! This just proves you don't have to go overseas to get scammed you can have it done here.

Do not leave anything on board when you disembark. You will most likely not get it back. After looking hard for a lost-and-found number online, I had the following experience.

First, local airport numbers are not available to the public (this would be too easy).
Second, the number listed for baggage in Pittsburgh was incorrect (someone named Scott was not impressed).
Third, the number supplied to me by email had a recording that said to apply directly in person (1000 miles away).
Fourth, the "customer care" number had a recording that said it was not able to store left-behind items (so many of them, you see).
And fifth, the general number person gave me the Pittsburgh baggage number and they told me they did not have my Zune mp3 player.

The whole experience sucked.

My son is in the U.S, military,on August 5,2009 he along with 4 other soldiers going home for a brief 4 day pass were kicked off their flight due to it being over weight. These young men had little enough time with family before shipping off to Iraq.Is this any way to treat an American soldier ??? Not one person offered their seat to these young men, who yes paid for their own ticket. I am proud to be an American but ashamed at how our soldiers are treated with so little respect.SHAME on you Nothwester Airlines !!!

Tried contacting NWa @ 1-800-225-2525 and after answering questions from a machine, it finally said that it was transfering to an agent and then I get another dumb recording that said because of high call volume, to call back later. What is this, somebodys wet dream from NWA? I need to get seat assignments and can't do it over the phone then NWA should incorporate the seating selection on its web site. For a company with a vision, you sure have your hindsight in view. Its old fashioned to do seat assignment over the phone.

Just had the worst travel expirence eve with nwa/delta and unable to contact anyone

How can you have a number listed that doesn't even work? This is very frustrating and outrageious.

Totally useless.

I was checking in for flight 1049 in pittsburgh pa today and was appalled at the situation there with utter chaos. (my daughter flew on the plane today (katharine reineman) why make people wait in 2 very long lines? -one for the kiosk for check in and another to hand in bags to go on the flight. In addition, the woman who was supposed to be checking traffic and assisting us was very rude and said that if we missed our flights, it was not her fault. there was no effort made to assist those passengers who had been waiting for 70-90 mins to complete this process and had an imminent flight. i was very concerned to see such a complete lack of respect for those of us who were trying to be respectful of this crazy system. there were insufficient staff there to help with the check in process.

northwest Airlines is horrible. The ticket agent at the desk called my wife names and called me a ni**er.
We are currently pursueing a lawsuit

Ditto on all of the complaints. I was in St. Louis on 1/16/09 and they cancelled our flight due to a baggage door that the sensor wouldn't shut off. I was traveling with 2 small children, one noticibly sick (vomitting). The agent at the desk would not even help me, said I had to stand in line behind the 100 other people waiting to get rebooked. I ended up on a flight 12 hours later, with NO HELP! I won't fly NW again.

We recently flew NWA roundtrip from Seattle to Columbus-via Minneapolis, OH for a conference. The conference ended early, so I contacted NWA reservation by phone and asked if it was possible to leave on an earlier flight. After giving my confirmation number, I was told that there were seats available on an earlier flight to Seattle from Columbus via Detroit, but we would have to pay a standby fee of $25 per leg of the trip, or $50. We were scheduled to leave Columbus at 7 p.m., the Detroit route left at 5 p.m. We therefore made an effort to get to the airport as soon as possible so that we would be first on the standby list. We checked in at about 2 p.m. and were told that we could not do standby we would have to pay a change fee of $150, plus the difference in the ticket cost. The total was over $700! We tried to explain that this was not what we were told over the phone or we would not be at the airport 5 hours early. The only response we received was that the information we received was wrong. We decided to try our luck at the gate, knowing that there were seats available and hoping that the information we received over the phone was accurate. We were finally told that the standby rate did not apply as we were changing routes! When we asked to speak to a manager, we were told that management did not work on weekends. We could not believe this. Weather was questionable as snow storms were predicted for both routes and snow was falling in Columbus. I would assume that an airline would want to get as many customers to their destinations as possible and the sooner the better. The icing on the cake is I shared this story with a friend who said the same thing happened to him while flying NWA. He too refused to purchase a new ticket. However, when it was time to board his flight the plane was overbooked and they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats!!! Get it together! Have some foresight and empower your employees because they sure appear to be ignorant. I am an extremely frustrated consumer.

My story is the same as most. Delays,cancelled fights, last second gate changes, no help from airline reps. We were stranded in Minneapolis for two days without our luggage because the flight crew for our plane ran out of allowable hours to fly. Of course the airline had no other crew so we were on our own. No reimbursement for hotel, food and transport. Rude counter personnel. We had this going to and from our destination. When we finally got back to our starting point our luggage was again missing.
They said they would deliver it later that day but once again it didn't happen.
In this day and age when companies are going bankrupt and out of business this is truly one company that deserves to fail. I'll never use them again. Northwest, you SUCK!!!

Your Customer Service is horrible!! We were on flight #NW 162 from Seattle to Minneapolis- Our flight was late arriving in Minneapolis they did nothing to help us. We were traveling with 6 adults and 4 small children. We ended up renting a car and driving 300 miles home in the middle of the night costing us an extra $800 for 2 cars. We were told repeatedly this was not Northwest Airlines fault- Our bags were lost and we were told this is not our fault but your fault- How can it be our fault when your airlines loses are bags! We will never fly Northwest Airlines again nor will any of our family members! You can take your $25 voucher and use it for toilet paper!! Our son just called and him and his wife are now stranded in Minneapolis with no help to be had from Northwest Airlines- Your Airlines has terrile Customer Service- I work in Customer Service and would never treat a customer the way your Airlines does!!

I have never been this dissatisfied with a company and how it handles its customers. The ticketing agents in the San Antonio Airport are uncaring, unhelpful, and extremely unsympathetic with customers. My flight was delayed and instead of attempting to find another flight for the same day, I was rebooked with united. The new flight did not fly out until the next day in the afternoon. No other compensation was even offered.I am having to pay for extra daycare, gas, and cab fare. I am also loosing 3 days of military leave. No one appologized for their rudeness or attempted to help. I also attempted to contact customer service via telephone with no results. I waited for over fourty minutes and still did not get through to a customer care operator.

I made a reservation on NWA - first tried to make reservation on line and then got to end and this VISA verification came up and would not allow me to finish..Guess what that means i have to contact NWA via phone in order to make a reservation. It costs $20 extra for a Customer Service agent to make a flight reservation- no matter what the circumstance. WOW. Ok got pass that and I tried to get my seat assignments for flights. The only seats available are seats you purchase-premium seating and choice seating. I call Customer Service and they tell me I cant get a seat until 24 hrs prior to departure. They got my money 2 weeks prior to departure but i cant get a seat until 24hrs prior because they want to try and make passengers pay extra money for seats to get now and not wait until 24 hours prior to departure. NWA is a rip off and I will never fly with them again. Customer Service agents are very rude and do not help at all. CSA starting yarning while I was explaining my problem online..

I recently traveled Northwest Airlines from Washington DC at Washington Dulles airport on NW 1874 bound for Taipei, on November 21, and then returned to Washington DC on NW 0096, December 2. I requested diabetic meals through the travel agent when booking, online through www.northwest.com, and through discussions with the flight crew just before departing. I did not recieve the special diabetic meals to meet my dietary needs on these flights. I am very unhappy with my travel experience on your airlines. I will never fly Northwest Airlines again, as I have never encountered this inconvenience with any other air carrier. I will tell all my friends, family, and coworkers never to travel Northwest Airlines. If there can be any kind of compensation for this I would feel better.

I forgot to tell you that the reason "I" think that the supervisor DID NOT WANT TO DEAL with this flight, was that a couple of hours earlier ANOTHER FLIGHT to MEMPHIS had to be cancelled. SHE PROMPTLY GOT A BUS for the ones that wanted to get to their destination and then catch their connecting flights or newly rescheduled flights. MY QUESTION WAS...were WE NOT AS IMPORTANT as the group before us? DID WE not pay the same cash for our tickets. WHY WERE WE ignored and they were taken care of? AGAIN, were WE NOT AS IMPORTANT as they were? Why couldn't they have gotten another bus and gotten us to Memphis to connect to other flights??? IN MY OPINION, it was because she had had to put up with it once that day and didn't feel like she had to again. There was no one there to SUPERVISE after 6:00 PM and no one there to make decisions. EVEN THE GIRL behind the checkin-out said that she had NEVER seen this happen and she HERSELF couldn't understand why they wouldn't even give us a meal, another ticket, or a hotel ..or any ONE of the three !!! GRRRRRRR I am stilllllllllll mad !! AND STILL would like some type of compensation. WE NEVER EVEN GOT AN "I'M SORRY from NORTHWEST" even though the little girl was really apologitic

This is a closure to the post before this one.

I am wondering why you don't take care of your customers when the cancelled flight is YOUR FAULT. I was suppose to spend the weekend with my new granddaughter while her parents went to a formal affair. I was suppose to have left on a Thursday afternoon. I took off work that afternoon so that I could be able to be there at checkout on time. WHY? At the appointed time, the entire flight was still standing there as they said it would only be a few more minutes. At 15 minute intervals, this continued for 2 HRS !!! The attendant behind the desk didn't know what to do and the one helping her was the gentleman that LOADED OUR LUGGAGE on the PLANE !! AFTER 2 hrs. they passed out a 1-800 # saying that we might be able to book a flight faster that way. One customer called right after they told us it WASN'T cancelled, only to find it WAS !! People were sooooo mad ! I was upset because they were blaming my city instead of the airline! Finally the girl behind the desk, who had been the one to originally check me in at the front of the airport, told everyone that it was cancelled. If they wanted to talk further they would have to go back up front at the initial check-in AND the gentleman had to go back out and UNLOAD our luggage.

Once there, a few of us showed up. I was only going to have a layover for an hour and a half. I didn't take but $20 with me however, NOTHING was done for the passengers ! NOTHING !!! NO MEAL, NO FLIGHTS, NO HOTEL. As a matter of fact the girl behind the counter called her supervisor when we asked to speak to her. HER SUPERVISOR PLANLY TOLD THE GIRL ...DON"T GIVE THEM ANYTHING !!!!!!!!! SO WE SLEPT at the AIRPORT...no meal, no flight, no HOTEL. Our flights were rescheduled at 11:00 PM on another airlines!!! and it was scheduled for 5:30 A M the next morning ! Instead of going from ARKANSAS through Memphis to my destination of Kentucky, (originally a quick flight) NOW I WAS GOING THROUGH HOUSTON several HUNDRED MILES in the opposite direction. NEEDLESS TO SAY, we were NOT HAPPY !! When we switched planes in Houston...again mechanical trouble but they fixed it within 30 minutes. I GOT TO MY DESTINATION just 4 hrs. before their formal event was to start. I was tired, I was mad because I had lost precious time with my new grandchild !!! On the way back home, my son had just dropped me off at the airport and within 5 minutes I learned that NORTHWEST had cancelled on me AGAIN !!!!! AGAIN..no meal, no flight, nothing was offered. I asked for a meal since I got there at 10:30 AM on a Sunday morning and I was not to leave until 4:30 PM ! They declined to give me a meal saying WE DON"T DO THAT ANYMORE !

This time I was rescheduled on ANOTHER airline and stopping in NORTH CAROLINA !!!!AGAIN in the opposite direction. We got left late and while I was originally suppose to be at home by 5:00 PM. I was now getting to the airport ..not HOME...at 10:30 PM. I had spent more time going on a 2 hr flight than I had the entire time in KENTUCKY. I lost valuable time with my new granddaughter, no one was in a pleasant mood and they were so rushed and stressed and had to change plans to accommodate the airline changes that I WAS TOTALLY DISGUSTED. NORTHWEST YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS !!!!!!!! We booked with you on good intentions that you would. NOW I AM RELUCTANT TO EVER FLY WITH YOU AGAIN, unless you rectify this error and you can BETTER BELIEVE that I will tell EVERYONE I KNOW ...NOT TO FLY NORTHWEST..unless something is done to accommodate this situation !!!

I just flew with you from Seatle to Minneapolis on the 3rd of November. I was on flight 804 seat 42D which is an isle seat. I was with my wife who also had an isle seat across from me in 42C. We boarded the plane and there was a 400lb guy sitting in my seat and another big guy sitting by the window, with a empty seat between them, or should i say half a seat between them. Both of these guys had to have seat belt extensions.
This guy was in my seat and not moving. The flight attendant did not do anything to make this guy move. She acted like it was my problem. She said the flight was booked full and I should find a seat. I was clearly not going to sit between these to guys in a half of a seat. Eventually I did find a empty seat between to other big guys but not quite as big, big enough for the one to have his leg over in my area, under the seat in front of me, and we could not even bring the armrest down. On top of that I'm seperated from my wife.
Not a happy camper.

I attempted to book online for a flight. I have a hyphenated last name which many credit card companies will not spell out(use an initial) and therefore it does not exactly match my drivers license. Online booking kept saying I was using a third payer system. I called customer service who very bluntly told me they would not help without charging me a service fee since their system refused to take my card. I used another airline who had no problem helping me without a service charge.