While there are several posts out there discussing NW West Coast strategy (or lack thereof) and the ONT/RNO closings, I unilaterally decided to start a new thread JUST to discuss what FT user’s experiences are like when booking or rebooking flights originally scheduled after January 4th from Ontario or Reno. This will make sure that affected FT members will be able to easily locate the current information for their canceled future itineraries and future travel plans.

Here is what I learned tonight as I dealt with rebooking my ONT-MSP-AMS-TLV-AMS-MSP-ONT itinerary scheduled for late January returning early February:

From what the extremely friendly rep on the phone let slip, NW is expecting a flurry of angry customers in response to this change. They are working with other airlines to accommodate passengers on the flights that will be canceled, but have not finalized the specifics of those plans. Accordingly, while they are no longer booking or servicing ONT/RNO past January 4th, they have not yet canceled flights already booked. They want to have all the answers in place before the deluge of customer service calls begin

In the meanwhile, here is their current policy on rebooking the canceled flights. They will allow passengers to rebook their flights out of any airport within 300 flight miles of ONT or RNO. For ONT passengers, this means virtually any Southern California airport will fall within reach, as well as Las Vegas. For RNO, virtually all the northern California airports are viable alternatives. Visit http://www.nwa.com/travel/trave/route/states.shtml for a list of their destinations. You can then use the frequent flyer mileage calculator http://www.nwa.com/cgi-bin/wpmiles.cgi to determine the actual flight mileage from RNO to your alternate airport.

[Maybe someone can be generous enough to spend 10 minutes calculating the possible alternate airports and post a reply?]

In the event that you can not travel to an alternate airport, I suddenly see on nwa.com a bunch of code share flights that Alaska, Continental, Delta, and United Express will operate from these airports. They probably will rebook you on these flights. Make sure that you do your homework before calling in so that you can get the shortest routing or take advantage of a great mileage run opportunity.

On a personal note, the representative that I dealt with over the phone was an angel. I got elite seating (all bulkhead or exit row) based on my companion's Delta elite status, since they no longer recognize my HP elite status for seating. They even requested (not guaranteed) exit row seating for me on my KLM legs. My new itinerary is LAS-MEM-AMS-TLV-AMS-MSP-LAS which saved me at least 8 hours in layovers plus 8 hours r/t in the car driving LAS-ONT or $100x2 for HP LAS-ONT. M only disappointment is that I have to wait until next week to get my return leg seating due to limitations how far in advance seats can be assigned.

I recommend rebooking at a dedicated customer service counter in a hub city, over the phone 800-225-2525, or at the Northwest Airlines WorldClub. The check-in agent who booked my original itinerary was RUDE beyond belief and I do not trust such folks with delicate transactions like this. If you have to go through a ticket line to rebook, hopefully it is the elite line. The NWA phone reservations agent echoed this same recommendation.

Hopefully your experiences with NWA rebooking fare well. Either way post the information here and help your fellow travelers out.