NWA...anyone else have tickets for Fall and worried

[scoutsmom99]

I was worried when I first heard about the immpending strike, but for some strange reason I think that the President will step in if he has to like he did before. *Sidenote*My uncle is a mechanic for NWA here in MN he has been with them for over 30 years and he is retiring in 3 days from the job. He wanted to get out of there before the strike, but in the past few years he has worked on so many different assignments as a result of all the cuts and out sourcing that is going on at NWA. I talked to him this week and he said he would not fly NWA if there was a strike (I think that is more the union part of him talking!). ANywho if I read the classifieds right last Sunday (7/17) I saw that NWA was hiring part time mechanics. I hope everything gets settled fast whatever happens.

 

[Brian Noble]

scoutsmom: the White House has already siad that they *don't* plan to step in--see the news article linked in my post #17 above. This scould change, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[CarolA]

I would not count on the President stepping in. Since I have not followed NW closely (don't fly them) I don't know where they are.

However, I would think they might still get the mandatory "mediation" that would delay any job action.

The slowdown technique is one that is used along with the "sick out" and of course you don't really know what is going on so....

 

[Pinnie]

Folks,

I'm hearing a lot of anecdotal evidence on flyertalk that the NW mechanics are in "slow down" mode---this is where the mechanics do absolutely everything "by the book" but slowly, and it can cause havoc with operations---delaying and cancelling flights. One flyertalk member has seen 3/4 of his flights in the past week delayed or cancelled (though admittedly some were due to weather.)

.

I just flew home last night on NWA from SNA - MPS - DTW and did NOT encounter any slowdowns. Back in Nov of 2000 (I THINK that is the right year) I flew NWA from DTW - MCO and encountered a slow down by mechanics. The had to "inspect" a seat cushion and wouldn't release the flight and we were delayed about 2 hours.

I am flying NWA Aug 10 and 14 to and from PVD out of DTW and am not concerned about a slowdown. However, I am due to return home from MCO on August 21st. I do think that Detroit is such a Union Town that the strike would be supported here. Part of me is thinking of booking a couple of seats on SWA for the return trip. hmmmmm.

pinnie

 

[scoutsmom99]

scoutsmom: the White House has already siad that they *don't* plan to step in--see the news article linked in my post #17 above. This scould change, but I wouldn't count on it.

I do realize they have said that, but IMHO I think they will step in at somepoint. It has been discussed on the news as well here that there is a good chance of that happening.

 

[MermaidsMom]

Do you think that Christmas tickets on NW are safe?

 

[Brian Noble]

Christmas should be fine.

Scoutsmom: I think you are being optimistic. Usually, if the white house plans to get involved, they mumble about "monitoring the situtation...expect the parties to resolve this." The quote in that Free Press article is much more clear than that. I could be wrong (and, if a job action comes to pass, I hope I am) but here is the quote from that article:

Bush has the power to block a strike again, but the White House signaled Wednesday that that won't happen this time.

"The National Mediation Board has found that a labor action at Northwest would not present a substantial disruption of interstate commerce. The administration does not dispute this conclusion based on current information and the president is not creating a presidential emergency board," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said.

This is a surprising step given this administration's general attitude towards labor issues, and friendliness to airlines in particular, because it gives the union significantly more leverage.

CarolA: the parties were released from mediation, with impasse declared, on July 20th. They are in the mandatory 30-day cooling-off period. The first possible date of a strike would be 12:01 AM August 20th (the 31st day after impasse).

 

[CarolA]

Brian
Thanks for the update. I did not realize they had already gone to mediation. (I did a quick review on FlyerTalk, but this must have fallen down on the board!)

 

[bronwyn]

I'm a little nervous! We don't fly out until the end of September so I guess we'll just wait and see.

In another Detroit Free Press article, the spokesperson for the White House says:

President George W. Bush has the authority to seek an end to an airline strike in some cases by appointing a review board if a dispute significantly disrupts transportation. "We're closely watching the developments and hope that an acceptable agreement can be reached," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at his briefing Wednesday.

So, perhaps they will step in. Who knows, at this point it's all just speculation!

 

[Pinnie]

I am considering purchasing a ONE WAY REFUNDABLE fare on SWA for the trip back home from MCO on August 21. Normally I wouldn't care, but DH, DS and I all HAVE to be back at work on the 22nd. IF NWA settles, then I can get the $$$ back from SWA. IF they don't....then NWA better have a plan in place to refund my ticket home.

pinnie

 

[CarolA]

I am considering purchasing a ONE WAY REFUNDABLE fare on SWA for the trip back home from MCO on August 21. Normally I wouldn't care, but DH, DS and I all HAVE to be back at work on the 22nd. IF NWA settles, then I can get the $$$ back from SWA. IF they don't....then NWA better have a plan in place to refund my ticket home.

pinnie

If they go on strike you will need to contact them and deal with them PRIOR to just not showing up and then wanting a refund. In most cases they will not refund you the full fare ticket you purchased on SWA. What they will want to do is write you over to an airline they have an interline agreement with. (The logical choice here is Delta since they have a code share agreement and Delta has LOTS of flights out of MCO).

Go ahead and buy the ticket, but if you hear about the strike you need to call NW then and get someone to buy off on paying for it. Doing it on your own and then attempting to get resolution will be tough. They "might" refund you the missed part of your NW ticket, but if you don't show up and deal with them all bets are off! They can and will claim that you didn't show and they owe you nothing.

 

[Pinnie]

Thanks CarolA. That is what we were planning on doing. Had I known WHEN the cool down period was when I booked the flight, I would have gone with SWA in the first place.

Luckily, it looks like my flights to and from PVD will be unaffected!

pinnie

 

[jenelope]

Suddenly, I am very glad that I didn't have enough WorldPerks miles for a NWA flight and had to book it on Delta for my fall trip. I don't know how long the potential strike would last, but Sept. 30 could have been awkward timing. I always fly NWA because I'm so close to DTW. (I'm still not precisely sure why I could get a Delta flight using fewer Northwest miles than a Northwest flight required.)

Good luck to all of you flying NWA in the next couple of months. Hopefully, this will blow over quickly.

 

[jgreen]

Well, I was worried enough that I called and changed my reservations over to Continental. I was using World Perks mileage for our upcoming trip, and going to WDW we were on NW flights through DTW to MCO on August 26th, and for the return we were on Continental flights through Houston back up to Calgary.

Now we are going with Continental from YYC through Houston to MCO, but the change cost me $50 per ticket for a total of $200 to have the peace of mind that even if NWA does strike that I will not be inconvenienced.

jenelope, the NW flights probably required more mileage to reserve because there are a limited number of award travel seats available on any given flight at the "standard" award mileage requirement. The day(s) you were looking to travel probaly were already booked fully for the "standard" award travel amounts. You could still fly those days with NWA, but it would require the "rulebuster" mileage, which is usually double the miles. With Delta being in the same frequent flyer program partnership, they probaly had seats still available requiring only the "standard" mileage amount for award travel. Continental is also in the same partnership program.

Two years ago for our vacation we had to use the rulebuster for our trip to Hawaii, and we were even flexible in our travel dates. I had a NWA agent check for standard award travel availability 6 months out, but still nothing open. It ended up costing each of us 70,000 miles for the round trip.

 

[CarolA]

Always have them check first class before you go "rulebuster". I had a case a few weeks ago where Delta had no Skysaver (cheaper) tickets available for my dates. The "rulebuster" was 50,000 miles. I checked first class and got the ticket on Skysaver in first class for 45,000 miles.

 

[jgreen]

I definitely did check the first class option as well. I worked at an airport in Michigan at the time, and I had the NWA agent go through basically every flight to HNL from DTW six months in advance. Luckily it was a slow Saturday morning so we had plenty of time, but still no luck. At least we had a great 12 day vacation in Hawaii .

 

[CarolA]

I definitely did check the first class option as well. I worked at an airport in Michigan at the time, and I had the NWA agent go through basically every flight to HNL from DTW six months in advance. Luckily it was a slow Saturday morning so we had plenty of time, but still no luck. At least we had a great 12 day vacation in Hawaii .

Sounds good. The reason I suggested the first class option is that a lot of time people who don't fly often don't know that the option might be better for them.