Letters to Charlotte

How very like any corporate giant! It is disgusting that the industry “bigs” we have grown to depend upon so willingly abuse the consumer who is the foundation of that business. Apathy is, unfortunately, what has brought us to this point. Too many consumers are mute, and accept what is meted out, but that won’t initiate change! Document, put it in writing, and always protest!!!

I applaud Ms. Reser-Jaynes for writing you. We must either put up or shut up. I, myself would take this issue farther to the news media as a public interest story. I would photocopy each letter, attach to a cover letter, and send to ALL talk show hosts on every channel. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, etc. But don’t stop there. Don’t forget the Department of Transportation, Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General (both State and United States), and RIVAL airlines.. your military branch news entity. Go local and national. Travel Agent Associations, Industry organizations..
ANYONE who might print or talk about your story. Don’t forget to use your Mom’s angle, too. What a human interest story!!!

Be sure to add a page listing all the people/entities, including names and addresses, to whom you are mailing (so do your research first ). Put your name, address and your phone numbers on your cover letter so you can be contacted.

What Northwest has done may be legal – but you can wage a letter-writing campaign to air your story, which is also legal. You may get this talked up on TV, or even be invited to be a guest on a talk-show and/or interviewed by the news – any news. The satisfaction for you is passing along the airline’s name and shoddy integrity to as wide an audience as possible.

At last, send back your packet to Northwest. They need to know about your efforts. We can’t all lay down to be walked on. Being an activist takes a lot of effort, but each one of us CAN count!

I need Ms. Opland’s job! Here’s MY response:

Dear Kristina:
Thank you for taking the time to write to us (twice) with your comments on our service, fares and fees.

Oftentimes we get so caught up in our daily activities – flying here, there and everywhere (literally), that we fail to see how we got where we are in the first place! We do know that our airline services thousands of individuals daily, and that each customer’s flight contributes to our overall success. We want to take this opportunity to personally thank you for chosing Northwest-KLM as your carrier to beautiful Norway.

We initially misunderstood the fact that Northwest charged you MORE for tickets that were recently REDUCED in price. It’s no wonder that you are writing to Mr. Steenland! Now that he fully realizes your predicament, we are pleased to honor your re-issued tickets at the price you initially paid – we are sending you a check for $759 – the amount you overpaid with the rebooking. In addition, Mr. Steenland asked that $200 be refunded to you for your 20 month old child who will sit on your lap. (You are already “paying the price” by having a child on your lap for 8+ hours).

We are unable to refund the $600 rebooking fee – although we wish we could. Rebooking fees come part and parcel with the industry. However we are including $25 in in-flight drink coupons – please have a glass of wine on us, Kristina. Enjoy your flight, and the beautiful country of Norway!

Kathleen Vigil
(who doesn’t really work for Northwest/KLM, but who couldn’t do any worse at the job than what has already been done by Ms. Opland and Mr. Steenland)

Hmmmm, I wonder what airline choices I’m going to make when seeking airtravel . . .

So, while this is very interesting (and sad), is Northwest going to do anything about it? It looks like they made an error that they haven’t fixed. Do we all need to write to Northwest and ask them to fix the problem?

BTW, How nice of Kristina not to mention to the sender of the first response that she was not flying to Amsterdam, but to Norway. Last time I checked, Amsterdam was not in Norway. It’s bad enough that they basically ignored her requests; and it’s ridiculous that they can’t even get the country right in their initial response to her.

Makes you wonder about the competence of the entire airline, doesn’t it?

I just read the story on the exchange of tickets with North(worst). As a travel consultant, I understand the problems Ms. Reser-Jaynes had in exchanging her travel plans. Unfortunately, most airlines do not know what the words “customer service” mean. Although they may be having some money problems, if the public stops flying, they will be out of business. I also agree with Deborah Price about writing to everyone and anyone who should hear about what is happening with the airlines and the that flying public is not only unhappy with their lack of concern with their passengers but that it might be time to start a grass-roots program to force some changes. I also like Ms Vigil’s response–not that’s
“customer service”. Unfortunately, the airlines feel that they are entitled to every penny they can get from the traveling public. There is a similar problem when you have to fly within one or two days due to a death in the family. It’s actually less expensive just to buy a ticket than to ask for a ‘berevement fare”. The airlines only want to add to your pain with the high cost of traveling on short notice. Thanks for the soapbox.

Unfortunately, NWA is the airline which has a schedule that is convenient for my husband to fly to visit his family in Wisconsin. We try to be absolutely certain that our plans are definite before making a reservation. Nevertheless, we get notices from NWA of changes THEY are making to the reservation details–usually just a minor change in the times.

We had no problem with flights on NWA and/or its partners to Europe in the 80′s and 90′s, but the entire airline industry has come upon hard times and unfortunately the travelers bear the brunt of the situation.

We had reservations for a Carnival cruise beginning in New York City in September 2001. Due to 9/11 all flights were canceled, and we could not get to NYC from Seattle. We had no problem getting our NWA miles reinstated, and the prepaid hotel made an immediate refund, but the insurance company (Travel Guard) denied our claim for the cruise fare, claiming a fine-print exclusion for acts of war (was war declared?). So I have a problem with that travel insurance company.

I have noticed that all the airlines are requiring more miles than before for award travel in order to get a decent itinerary with minimum stops and/or changes of planes.

Flying just isn’t the fun that it used to be, and for that I am sad.

Northwost is going to be eaten by Delta soon, right? Is Delta any better than Nortworst? Do we have an option beside not flying?

I’ve flown Northwest once in 20 years because of a very very bad experience in 1986 that caused me to miss a very important business meeting in Detroit. I’ve been a major frequent flyer domestically for 30 years and because of that experience I avoid NWA if another airline is available even at a higher fare. Obviously, that has been the case except once.

Good Luck…

John H. – I agree with you totally that NorthWest is as bad as it gets, but pleeese “other carriers that really care about you” (?) and “customer service that actually means something” (?). I fly weekly (in coach) for business, and I have to tell you that the only airline that I feel really CARES about me is British Air (I don’t fly to Europe that often). My usual carriers are UAL and American. True, they are over and above NW (don’t even get me started on NW); and yes, they do have newer planes, but I don’t think phrases like “Care” or “Customer Service” are in their collective vocabularies. I certainly didn’t mean to take a poke at other carriers, but a weekly stint in and out of Chicago on UAL leaves “CARE” looking more like “CRAP”. Read the current in-flight magazine “Hemisphere” on UAL – it actually says, (paraphrasing here) UAL does not want to be an airline for ALL people, just a special airline for SOME people. Well who are those people? It certainly isn’t me!

I used to have to fly NWA to Detroit when visiting relatives. Now I can fly Frontier Airlines. What a difference! Frontier is, indeed, a whole different animal, and my stock value is going up. Whooopeee!
If you want to experience what airlines used to be with customer service with a smile, fly Frontier…you’ll love it.

Given the current lamentable state of customer service, I nominate Kathleen Vigil not for “Charlotte Opland’s” job but to lead ANY company’s Customer Relations Department.

And to think that, once upon a time, what are now known as “legacy carriers” really understood–and practiced–the basics of warm, friendly, intelligent, and responsive dealings with the folks that keep them in business.

Imagine the goodwill NWA would have garnered, had someone with Ms. Vigil’s intelligence, compassion, humanity–and good business SENSE–dealt with Ms. Reser-Jaynes’ situation. Why, it probably would not even have nicked a thread in Mr. Steenland’s golden parachute…Must wonder if NWA’s cabin announcements at the end of a flight mention “We know you had a choice of carriers…”

Kathleen, if you should ever take such a position, please let us know the airline! This passenger would go out of his way to fly on it, just for the knowledge that its front office, and corporate culture, had not forgotten why the airline was in business.

A few weeks ago I purchased two tickets roundtrip Tampa-Indianapolis for a
trip beginning July 19 (06). Yesterday I noticed that the price of these
same tickets is now $70 less ($35 each). I contacted Northwest and was told
there was a $25 administrative fee for giving me a voucher for the
difference. I didn’t think that was fair but decided to request it anyway
as I at least would be putting back $45 into some future travel with
Northwest. (They don’t offer refunds, only travel vouchers.) Low and
behold, even though I purchased the two tickets in a single transaction,
they charged the $25 fee for each ticket. So my net “gain” was only two $10
vouchers for some future travel. I feel I have had $50 stolen from my poor
purse. What do you say?

Here’s why some of us hate Northwest Airlines and can only pray for their early and total demise. In June 2003, I was able to buy 2 roundtrip tickets on Northwest from Wash. DC to San Francisco in the holiday season for only $200 each. But then my mother ended up sick in the hospital at age 96. We decided I should go out 2 weeks earlier and I called NW to arrange it. Customer Service told me we’d have to do the tickets all over but they’d give me a “rate” for family emergency. She calculated the fare, told me it would now be $740 – the regular fare would be $980 or so. I said forget it, I’ll go out on Southwest, just return on my Northwest ticket. She told me I couldn’t do that, that if I did not appear on the outbound leg of the trip, I wouldn’t be allowed to get on the return flight.

I then said that since the whole thing was off, I am entitled to a refund of my money. That was not doable either. In the end, my wife used her ticket, I flew both ways on Southwest [for about $440], and Northwest kept my $200. So I am happy when I hear Northwest has fallen on hard times. They richly deserve to go out of business.

I too dislike the airline(s) policy and am firmly on Ms Reser-Jaynes side when I hear a story detailed the way hers has been. BUT, (and with the airlines all pulling this kind of crap when it comes to re-ticketing and re-booking -except good ole’ Southwest and Jet Blue of course) and it becomes a big BUT, has she ever heard of trip insurance????? It seems to me in her case of a once a year and very expensive trip with multiple people involved, only trip insurance would have allowed her the obvious way out of the tickting problem and allowed her the freedom to manuver to different dates as she saw fit. Because of the airlines hard stand on mostly unreasonable ticketing policies, I will look at this option more carefully in regards to my future travel and I suggest that you inform your readers to do the same.

It’s interesting how often Northwest’s name keeps popping up in stories like this and yet more incidents of people being kept on planes for hours because of weather or mechanical problems, instead of getting them off when it’s clear the plane won’t be flying anytime soon. I have both the NWA debit card and credit card only because I travel a lot and it makes it easier to pay my credit card online by moving money from checking to the credit card, but if my bank offered me a choice of another airline’s credit card, I’d make the change in a heartbeat. I think NWA’s corporate culture is broken, and there may be only one way to fix it: Chapter 7.

Fly Southwest as far as you can. Then use another airline for your last leg.

Why does anyone fly Northwest? Because if you live in Detroit (or Minneapolis, I’m willing to bet) and want to get to your destination without changing flights three times, you fly Northwest.

I’m not defending them. Not by a long shot. But several comments here have brought up the infamous winter-storm-stuck-on-the-tarmac story. When it happened, it was horrible, and to my knowledge, the first incident of its kind. Just this year, however, this same horrible stuck-on-the-tarmac incident has happened at least twice…and neither incident involved Northwest. One of those incidents led to the Passenger Bill of Rights that’s now sitting in Washington. Even the no-frills darling, Jet Blue, ran into serious problems this year. [To their credit, they sent the best "we're sorry" letter from a big(ish) business that I've ever read.] So I’d say all of the airlines share the problem of trapped-on-the-tarmac-itis; Northwest just did it first.