I am writing you this letter to advise you of Northwestern's incompetence and lack of security my wife and I experienced throughout our vacation travels on Friday June 14 and then again on Saturday June 24.
I will give you a step-by-step diary of our horrifying travels for you to understand our level of severe dissatisfaction and lack of security we feel from Northwest Airlines.
We arrived at the Milwaukee Airport at 11:00AM, over 2 hours early to ensure we had enough check in time to board flight #5503 leaving at 1:35pm to Detroit #5276 where we were scheduled to change planes.
We went to the check-in counter inside and checked in and were given what we thought were our tickets. We then went through the gate security with the same tickets and then through the final boarding of the plane with the same tickets as well, with no problems and proceeded to Detroit so we could change planes to get to our final destination to see my parents and immediate family before my six month pregnant wife gives birth (flight #5276).
We arrived in Detroit and upon transferring planes to get onto flight #5276 to Baltimore we noticed no rows were being called at all and it was a very booked flight.
People were everywhere; it was a very chaotic mess. When we were finally about to board, we asked the ticket agent why rows were not being called. She advised us that they were too busy to call rows.
Then she looked at my wife, Lisa's ticket and told us Lisa did not have a paper ticket and could not board the plane.
She walked away offering no explanation. After a few phone calls (I demanded she make to find out what the problem was since we just boarded in Milwaukee with the same tickets) and repetitive questions unanswered, she said that a manager was on the way and again, proceeded to walk off and assist other passengers, ignoring our problem and questions.
The plane continued to board while our patience was running out. After several minutes, the manager never showed and the flight left!
Still, no answers, still no manager. At this point, seeing our frustration, another ticket agent noticed the enormous lack of customer service being given and directed us to the Continental ticket counter upstairs to see if they could solve the problem.
By this time my six month pregnant wife and I were clueless on why or what had happened causing my wife to collapse in tears.
We walked to the ticket counter and received assistance from the ticket agent, Jennifer. Throughout the entire hour and fifteen minutes we stood there, Jennifer was finally able to inform us that Lisa was never allotted a ticket and should have never been permitted to board the flight in Milwaukee.
IN YOUR SYSTEM, A PERSON COMPLETELY WITHOUT A PLANE TICKET JUST BOARDED A PLANE!!! Jennifer was able to unscramble the puzzle further by finding out Continental had never issued a ticket, but there was a reservation.
This ticket was purchased with my miles that I accrued from years of flying with Continental; we purchased my ticket electronically as well
At this point, there was no way to contact my mother to advise that we would not be on that flight since the airport was far away from her home, she had already left to pick us up.
In addition, we were told we had to pay some sort of extra tax right then for $7.50 that we are still puzzled about.
Jennifer tried to compensate us with a stingy $8.00 meal voucher for our inconvenience due to Northwestern's incompetence.
She tried to give us first class however it was only available for our return flights. We then called 800-wecare2 for some sort of compensation for all this lack of security measure and extreme nuisance and were informed that nothing could be done until we finished our travels.
We then contacted my father (who lives in another city in MD) to see if he had any way of contacting my mother and was unsuccessful in doing so.
He told me that he contacted Continental / Northwest himself and they told him there was NO record of Lisa ever departing Milwaukee as well as being on any flight leaving Detroit.
After all the terrorist threats since September 11, this disgusted him as well! We pay so much money in additional taxes to fly in order to pay for these extra security measures that obviously are NOT being met by Continental Air Lines/Northwest Airlines.
After two additional hours of waiting to board the next flight we proceeded to the gate to check in again and were informed that there are not 2 seats available that are next to each other.
This compounded my wife's frustration as this had been such an excruciating, exhausting long day and an incredibly emotional day as well (creating unnecessary stress on our unborn child).
When I asked why, the ticket agent told us we cannot inconvenience another passenger who already has tickets on this flightbut you can inconvenience us AGAIN!
We finally made it to Baltimore where my mother had been waiting for us now for four hours. We went to pick up our luggage (which had been on the flight we were not allowed to board) and to our astonishment, our luggage was just sitting next to the conveyor belt, unguarded for four hours and we simply picked up our pieces and took our luggage, no questions asked or tickets to be seen.
This could have been a bomb or anything, again, showing your lack of security measures that disgusted us! What a way to begin our vacation. To our surprise and disappointment, our frustration with Continental/Northwest was not over as we began our journey home.
We arrived at 12:00pm on June 24 for flight #6141 to Detroit again to transfer planes. We were told by the outside check in agent that we were not allowed to check in outside and had to see a ticket agent inside.
We checked in, confirmed our seats in first class and found out none of our return flight seating was seated next to each other.
The ticket agent fixed that for us immediately and tagged our bags priority for our first class status. We boarded the plane and were off to Detroit.
While in first class, the first class airline attendant spent his entire time assisting the coach customers, no one was dedicated to your preferred first class members.
Upon arriving in Detroit we noticed on the monitor our connecting flight to Milwaukee #5483 had been cancelled!
We asked the closest Northwest agent why and she could not tell us anything except we were scheduled on the next flight, four hours later, flight #483.
How typical for this journey of incompetence! Again, my six month pregnant wife in tears as we re-lived our first stretch of traveling with Continental/Northwest again for the second time.
We were not offered any meal tickets so we had to spend our own money for meals during those long four hours. It was finally time to board our plane and we asked the ticket agent why the flight had been cancelled. She said it was due to maintenance, which confirmed our nuisance was again due to Continental's/Northwestern's lack of ability.
The ticket agent then advised us our seats were not next to each other anymore. I asked her why MY seats changed due to your cancellation.
She told me she couldn't upset another customer with reserved seats on this flight. I guess it was okay to upset this customer who had been on the worst traveling experience EVER!
Upset yet again, we boarded the very congested flight finally to Milwaukee. We arrived in Milwaukee to find out that ALL customers that were on any cancelled flights from Continental/Northwest, luggage was never sent!
Although our bags were marked priority for a special first class treatment and had four hours to make the transfer, Continental's lack of customer service appeared again!
We were told since we lived far from the airport, our luggage would be delivered at the end of the route the following day, which would be early afternoon. Any daily toiletries, medications, contacts/glasses, etc. Would not be delivered until the next day.
We called Sunday afternoon around 1pm and were told the carrier was very busy and they could not give a time any more whether night or day as to when our luggage would be delivered. The carrier finally showed up at 3:30pm with all three pieces of our luggage.
On July 10 at 7:15 PM I called your 800-wecare2 to advise them of the horrible service and security issues. I spoke to Alice Bonner until 7:35PM and she could only offer a meager 5,000 miles for compensation. She also told me she would put our information in a file of importance and that a manager would call us back that evening.
As of today, still no one has called to even acknowledge or admit his or her mistakes.
This type of conduct, lack of safety measures and customer service was the worst in my and my wife's life! I am sure America would panic knowing what lack of defense Continental/Northwest Airlines is NOT taking to protect us and better yet, what lack of customer service on top of those procedures.
I leave this in your hands for a complete and appropriate resolution to such cruelty.
Chad
Bristol, Wisconsin
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