I was on a flight from Richmond, VA to Detroit in September. The plane had mechanical problems and was routed to Dulles airport for an emergency landing. We were instructed to exit the plane and enter the airport terminal for re-booking.
At this time we were informed that the northwest agents had been "frantically searching" for alternative flights for us, but everything was booked leaving Dulles that night. We were told our options were to take a bus back to Richmond (our origin), or there were 20 seats on a Northwest flight to Lansing, Michigan, or to stand in line to rebook a new flight for the morning (and to receive hotel accommodations for the night).
After 1 hour in line, I had not moved at all, and I was able to rebook a flight over the phone through customer service for the next morning on United Airlines, directly to my final destination of Columbus. While still in line waiting to get a hotel, one of the other airline passengers approached me to let me know there were in fact other flights out of Dulles that night, on Independence Airlines.
Due to the fact that there were no Northwest representatives available for me to talk to, I had to purchase the flight out-of-pocket in order to get home that night. I am very upset that the Northwest representative in the airport informed us that there were no available flights out of Dulles for the rest of the evening, when in fact this was not true. I am also very upset with Northwest for only having one available agent to assist the approximately 100 passengers on our flight.
While still in the air on the way to Detroit, we were
informed that we were going to land at Dulles to have the mechanical problem looked at. We stayed on the ground in Dulles for another 30 minutes, and then we were finally instructed to leave the plane. This was more than enough time for Northwest to call in back-up agents to assist the passengers of this flight.
After multiple email correspondences with Northwest stating that I did not agree with their decision, I received the following email:
"Your additional comments are well received. There have been a number of communications exchanged between our company and you. If we have not sufficiently expressed our deep disappointment for your experience, I wish to do so at this time. On behalf of all the employees at Northwest Airlines, I apologize for your disappointing experience on September 26... There is no contractual obligation for airlines to provide compensation to passengers who are dissatisfied with their service. It is always difficult to reach an impasse with a customer. However, we consider this matter closed at this time.
"
0 comments