On Sunday 29 July I was travelling from Detroit to Boston on NW1194. At the check-in counter at 5:15am I was informed by the counter agent that, “oh Jeez, don’t do this to me”, my flight was cancelled for operational reasons. She informed me I would be booked on the next flight at 8:45am. Reasoning that this was greater than a 2 hour delay, I asked what the compensation would be for my delay, and she informed me it would be frequent flier miles. I informed her that I wanted cash compensation. She told me this would require supervisor approval. She proceeded to work on her computer, she took my bag, and checked me in. Finally she handed me my boarding pass and informed me that I was on the original flight as scheduled. Later, while boarding the flight I could observe it was overbooked and I overheard several passengers discussing that they had originally been booked the prior day, and were delayed until this flight.
The message is that, as a passenger, NWA can be expected to lie to you at checkin by telling you that your flight is cancelled when it is not, in order to avoid an overbooking situation. This is deceitful and unfair to consumers. Beware.
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