What's So Bad About Northwest Airlines?

[Madi1997]

We are flying on Northwest. I haven't heard a good thing on these boards about them. What's so bad about them?

 

[fmd8305]

My wife and I just returned from WDW last Monday. We flew on Northwest both down and back from Florida. We had absolutely no problems with Northwest. Everyone, from the ticketing office to the flight attendants were great. As with any business that deals with the public, there are good and bad apples. I think we tend to remember the bad and sometimes forget the good.

Gary

 

[flyingcircus]

Madi1997-

I think there is good and bad with every airline- just like the grocery stores, certain ones you like to go to, and certain ones you don't.Certain checkers you like, certain ones you don't.

I think what happens is that whatever airline has a hub in your area is the bad guy. eg NWA in Minneapolis. They will be in the news in MSP, a lot more than they will be exposed in Miami. Mostly, as we all know, the news is usually on a negative tone. Also, wherever the hub is, it tends to drive out competition from other airlines.

Now, that being said, that is NOT an excuse for bad service. I do want to point out that we do have a choice of what airline we fly, as well as whether we fly or not!! Many countries do not have any choices. There is only ONE airline. If you want to see bad service.....

We have to choice to pick and choose. NWA is a good airline- I wouldn't worry

 

[Beverly Lynn]

I think the name Northworst says it all. Uselessair says it all...DELTA (don't ever leave the airport) says it all......Continenanal says it all......LOL personally if it wasn't for my having been employed by uselessair I might have a different opinion of them. as a passenger they ahve treated me pretty darn good and if I had a problem they were great at handling it. Continental has never been anything but excellent, Northworst well the name says it for me, Delta we did have a long time before we left the airport due to a cancelled flight but they changed the ressie to acommodate me and I was happy and then since I was so nice to the agent she had them send me a 50 voucher to use for another flight. Northworst was theonly one that I have eer had horrible customer service on. United was great the one time I flew them, TWA was always wonderful, and believe it or not American was even good the few times I have flown them. so yes we all have good and bad experiences but it seems as if some have more than others. working int he airline industry and having to deal with NW agents I can say they are not pleasant ones.

 

[robinb]

My husband and I were big Northwest fans for a long time. They flew real 727s out of Madison to MSP and DET instead of "puddle jumpers" to Chicago. Being comfortable on both flights was imoortant to us and we amassed over 200,000 frequent flyer miles between us. Then, about 3 years ago, I spent the night in DET 4 times out of 5 attempts to connect through to Madison. It seemed that it was always "weather related" so nothing was done for us and we had to pay for our own hotel. To this day, I hate Detroit Metro Airport and Northwest.

On a brighter note, I put together an ultra-cheap trip to Disneyland in April for my 40th birthday. I Pricelined the hotel (for only $25 per night and it included breakfast) and I flew NWA on FF miles. The flight was great and since we flew to California, we changed planes in Minneapolis .

 

[KellyJ]

Well, here in Memphis (Northwest hub) the biggest complaint we hear is the price of the tickets. But for the most part, Northwest has a good record here. I know the first time we flew, probably in '92, the people at the counter were rude and the flight attendants were very snotty. Had we had more choices, we might not have flown them again. However, every flight since then with the latest being this past February have been great. The ticket agents have been friendly and helpful and so have the flight attendants... especially on our flight home when my 1 yr. old got sick... one flight attendant was at my side with paper towels and water before I could even look up. He checked several times during the remainder of the flight to see if he could help with anything. My parents have also used them for years with little to no complaints (also flying out of Memphis). Try not to worry... chances are your flight will go fine!

Kelly

 

[Madi1997]

Thanks for the replies. The only reference I've ever heard to Northwest is to have them called Northworst. I was starting to get worried. We got such a good rate with them flying out of Des Moines ($206 with tax). I couldn't resist. We'll just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have any problems.

Thanks. Nicole

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by Beverly Lynn
I think the name Northworst says it all. Uselessair says it all...DELTA (don't ever leave the airport) says it all......Continenanal says it all......

LOL! You forgot Southworst and Untied. And another for USAir is US Scare.

I've logged well over 200,000 miles in my lifetime. I'm not even sure anymore, it's probably actually a lot more, I stopped keeping track ten years ago when I was at 150K.

At any rate, I've had good and bad experiences with many carriers. I've seen a bunch go under. I've seen a couple new ones come on prety strong. I have some I wouldn't fly to begin with and would now, I have others I used to fly and never again.

Even on my two carriers of choice...a hint, I fly out of EWR and PHL regularly... I have experienced problems. The difference being that the situation has been remedied to my satisfaction either before, during or after the flight. Ten years after an emergency landing based on ground crew error, one of the majors is still on my no fly list, not because of what happened, but rather by the way it was handled. My corporate travel profile states that I will hitch hike before getting on this carrier's planes.

Customer service goes a LONG way.

Anne

 

[travelcoupons]

Like has been said here before, Northwest has both good and bad employees. They also have some REALLY bad employees (arrogant).

Hopefully, those bad ones are the ones getting layed off during the airline cutbacks !

 

[Beverly Lynn]

I never heard that one about United. I can't for the life of me remember what we used to call them. American has been referred to as several things...agony airlines, amazing airlines(amazing they get off the ground) America Worst,air tran is air scam. the list is probably endless.

 

[travelcoupons]

Some more:

A A - Always Aweful
Com Air - Kamakaze Air
Continental - Contemptible Airlines
Continental - Detrimental Airlines
Delta - Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive.
Delta - Melt ya
Midwest Express - Midwest Distress
Northwest - Northwaste
TWA - That Was Aweful
TWA -TightWad Airlines
United - United Airlanes
US Air - US Airheads
US Airways - US Scareways

 

[Meagansmom]

As a Minnesotan ( formerly Iowan). It is basically their prices. I have never had a bad experience on Northwest or with their employees. They are the only airline I know that does not cut any slack on their prices. I just cannot see how they can keep the prices they do with all of the competiton. In probably the past ten years, and all of the times we have gone to WDW, we have paid approx 1/3 the price of Northwest prices. We have booked our tickets for next May with Delta at $132.00 - same approx flight times, day - Northwest has been $400.00 or higher, never lower. And I check everyday - a couple times a day. They were hurting as far as business before 9-11-2001, so I think maybe I would look at a different approach if I owned a business.

 

[The shadow knows]

I woudn't fly them. I have also heard of agony airlines for the old allegheny airlines. too. Northworst is just that the worst of the worst. no customer service whatsoever.

 

[Miranda]

We swore we'd never fly Northwest again because of all the delays and the time it took to get to Florida (not Disney, but to my parents in southwest Florida). We had a stopover in Detroit which added a lot to the flight time, since Detroit is not even close to being on the way from New Hampshire to Florida (we knew about the stopover in advance but we had pretty slim pickings on airline/flight choices, as we were flying to visit my parents at Easter). While in Detroit we got stuck on the plane for an hour and a half after we were supposed to take off. They boarded the plane, and then said we had to wait because the baggage handlers wouldn't load the plane in the lightning storm. So we got to sit there in the stuffy crowded cramped plane with no air, for what seemed like forever. Then it was a very rough flight out of Detroit due to the aforementioned storm. It was just unpleasant and not entirely their fault, but still things like that cloud your perception of an airline.

 

[Shmee]

We actually had a pretty good experience on Northwest last year. Thanks to a tip from these boards, got RT tiks from PIT to MCO for $100 ($90 for MIL and DD). Had to connect in Detroit, but was a short layover. Only bad point, as we were ready to leave Detroit, the fuel guys had a grievance over something, a we had to wait about 45 minutes to find someone to fuel up the plane. I guess that could have happened with any airline.