Yesterday I had an experienece that leaves me frustrated and angry. I was checked in and had a boarding passs with assigned first class seat on domestic flight on Northwest airlines, full Y class fare, went to the airport club to wait for departure. Walking from the club to the gate, I heard myself paged to the gate when I was about 1 min away (it was 15 min before departure). I entered the jetway 14 minutes before posted departure according to both the clock in the gate area and my own watch; the gate agent met me in the jetyway and told me they had pushed and I'd missed the flight. She refused to let me board. The agent earlier told me the rule was one needed to be on board 10 minutes before departure. Granted, this was cutting it close, but they closed the door and pushed early. When I requested that they try to rebook me, the agent flat out lied and told me no other carrier had flights available (I found this out when I called the travel agent who issued the ticket, who immediately found at least two other flights on other carriers). Due to weather that set in after the original flight departed, I wound up spending 10 hours in the airport befoire getting a coach seat that got me to my destination in the early AM hours. <BR> I realize there is intense pressure to maintain on time statistics, but this just seemes unfair - maybe even illegal. You can bet that I will avoid Northwest like the plague, and recommend you do the same!

FYI, though NWA routinely provides only fax and email options for registering complaints, the DOT provided this contact for written correspondence: <BR> Ms. Cindy Scheer <BR> Director, Customer Relations <BR> Northwest Airlines, Inc. <BR> Minneapolis/St Paul Int'l Airport <BR> St Paul MN 55111

NORTHWEST AIRLINES IS THE WORST AIRLINES IN THIS WORLD. I TRAVELLED WITH NORTHWEST FIRST CLASS FROM MANILA TO SAN FRANZISCO AND HAD RESERVED AND CONFIRMED A NO-SMOKING SEAT. ONCE ON BOARD, I COULD NOT GET THIS NONSMOKING SEAT AND HAD TO STAND OUT WITH MY WIFE ALL THE SMOKING DURING THE LONG FLIGHT FROM SOEUL TO SAN FRANZISCO. I WAS HORRIBLE AND ALSO ALL THE PERSONAL ON BOARD. NEVER, NEVER FLY WITH NORTHWEST, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER

HERE I AM AGAIN AND I AM STILL ANGRY ALTHOUG I TOOK THIS HORRBLE FLIGHT FROM MANILA TO SAN FRANZISCO VIA SOEUL 7 YEARS AGO. A CAN NEVER FORGET IT. IT WAS SO HORRIBLE, SO HORRIBLE, SO NEVER, NEVER FLY THIS HORRIBLE NORTHWEST!!!!! THIS PEOPLE DO NOT CARE. IT IS THE WORST AIRLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <BR>KURT

Boy, Kurt, you must really be mad - you can't even spell or use good English!!

ALL Northwest/KLM flights are entirely non-smoking. Are you sure you were on NW?

YES, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT I DO NOT SPEAK TO GOOD ENGLISH. YOU KNOW, IT IS NOT MY MOTHER TONGUE, BUT AT LEAST I KNOW A LITTLE BIT. APART FROM MY LITTLE ENGLISH, I SPEAK GERMAN, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGUEESE. AND YOU? DO YOU HAVE EVEN KNOWLEDGE OF AN OTHER LANGUAGE? SOME WORDS AT LEAST? IF NOT, PLEASE BE QUIET. OK. <BR>I TOOK THIS FLIGHT 8 YEARS AGO, SO SMOKING WAS STILL ALLOWED.

I just flew home from vacation on NWA yesterday, and aside from one or two friendly flight attendants, the service was poor, at times downright hostile. This leads me to believe that the airline is not taking good care of its employees. Luckily, I just used up my frequent flier mileage, so I'm done with them! <BR> <BR>By the way: Danny, don't be a jerk. What are you, an angry teenager or something?

Oh my,... <BR> <BR>I can say that I have had nothing but positive experiences with Northwest Airlines. And I have flown them numerous times over the last 15 years. <BR>It just goes to show that there are many different experiences on all the airlines. My, myself, I will avoid American Airlines for a time due to the stewardesses on my last flight from Vancouver to Tampa in Sept. 1999. <BR>Kittie

My father moved to Minneapolis when I was 14, and for three years, I flew Northwest every other weekend to go visit him. Most of the time the flights were okay, but when things went wrong, they went REALLY wrong. Twice I was stranded, once in Detroit and the other time in New Jersey, not to mention I was underage, unchaperoned and scared to death. The airlines made no attempt to help me, so I was forced to fend for myself. I don't fly them much anymore, but I've never been treated worse by an airline.

This was a horrible flight for me!

Had a wretched experience with NW myself in May. After an emailed complaint, they actually responded and sent me a credit for $125 on any future flight through 2001. (Not the standard $X for a flight costing $Y, but an actual credit!) I may have to use NW for business again -- just did but the credit came to late to be used this time. Lucky for me, this most recent trip went smoothly.

I'm sure there are occasions when an airline messes up. Yet, I can't agree with you all who complain so strongly about NWA. I've always been treated more than politely. But I agree - those of you who are angry should not fly NWA.

Northwest is the worst airline in the universe. I will never fly with them again. No one likes them. They delay a lot, the food suck and the fares are so <BR>expensive. As well the flight attendents are so rude. The seats are so warn out. I don't know how they can run the business!! Go to hell Nortwest airline. I found something like that in Thai too!!(international flight)I used to like Thai because I am Thai and I often flew with them on domestic and within Asia flights and when I decided to fly to America with Thai. I found that they cannot keep up their reputation as they did. It happend the same way as Northwest Airlines. Go to hell both Airlines!!!

I absolutley love Northwest!! I have flown on NWA for my whole life(well over 200 times!) and I have nothing but good htings to say. My mother was also a flight attendant for 20 years with them. I understand some of your complaints but those things could happen on any airline! Honestly your being pretty childish.

We've had both good and bad experiewnce on almost every airline we've flown, including NW--except out Midwest Express experiences are all good.

But please, let's cut down on the name calling and hostility on the boards, just pleasant disagreement.

NW has probably improved quite a bit from 4 years ago, so why bumped up a thread from way back?

Anyways, I'm still amazed that someone can fly an airline over 200 times and have nothing bad to say about it. And I guess you weren't &quot;held hostage&quot; for 8-9 hours on the tarmac at DTW during a snow storm a few years back...

premobrimo, any particular reason you replied to a messges 3 1/2 years old?

Keith

honestly, no idea. People are still looking at the threads!

Well, since you brought up the subject....
After a personal boycott of nearly 5 years I flew NWA last month, based on best schedule for my needs and a great price using one of their ubiquitous coupons. Things have improved - agents and ground staff were uniformly friendly and efficient, aircraft interiors were a bit worn but pretty much clean, and inflight crew was terrific. Food was typical airline food, but that's true across all carriers. Club in Detroit was quite nicely done. I'd likely use them again if the schedule and price were right.