having flown extensively for many years on AA and CO, they have similar rules about flight time changes. and, yes, 99% of the time, flight time changes aren't a big deal...sometimes they even make connections better.

but, in those small cases when schedule changes really do "muck things up," AA and CO have been reasonable. when i explained how their schedule changes messed things up, accomodations have been made.

my big problem with NW is that they really go by the letter of the law without listening to the situation or giving any lattitude whatsoever. in cases where schedule changes have really messed things up for me, if the airline has been unwilling to assist i have disputed the charge with my credit card company and won each and every time. it's only happened a couple of times over the past 10 or so years, but i couldn't imagine losing.

an airline sells you flight #xx at xx:xx time. if you lay out a reasonable claim with the credit card company on how the schedule change messed things up, i can't imagine how you could lose.

NW has to understand that while 99% of the time schedule changes are okay, there actually CAN be instances that it messes things up. are these people or computers that answer the phone?? situations aren't formulaic (i.e., passenger's change was 58 minutes which is < 60 minutes so don't listen to any reason whatsoever).

again, in my experience with a number of airlines, NW is the pits at this.