Greetings --

It's been a good several months (7+) since I've flown on an Avro because of them being pulled out of markets I've used on a regular basis.. (RJ / Pinnacle rotation)

However, I was on an Avro Flight with Mesaba just a few days ago and it left me with a bad taste. At the station (decent sized airport w/jet bridge facilities) the local AirLink staff had a bad attitude, there was no gate agent around, & no standby upgrades were processed (a few open seats up front and I saw many other elites complaining).

At boarding time, one gate agent shows up and tells everyone to board (a nearly full flight -- complete mayhem). No special boarding for FC or elites. Just an ugly one for all like the Southwest cattle herd but worse (doesn't WN use smaller group sizes?).

A gentleman near me managed to get on the RJ-85 with *4* (four) full-size/oversize carry-ons. This never should of gotten past the gate agent, but instead the gate agent takes two of the bags and gate checks them through to AMS for free instead of charging $100 per extra bag (this guy already had 3 checked). The agent said he wasn't supposed to do this, but was going to make this "one exception" -- now, how the heck did these 4 oversized carryons get by the gate agent upon boarding, let alone the TSA?

While on the plane (prior to pushback), I overheard the FA's complaining about the upgrades, they were busy talking about submitting resumes & job applications to other companies, no pre-departure drinks were served, and it was not the "Mesaba" I used to know and fly. Perhaps this was just a "one off", but is there a round of layoffs coming soon with Mesaba? Anyone have official word? I know some RJ-85's are being parked soon from what I've heard.

At DTW, I needed some assistance because of my cancelled connecting flight upon arrival. In the Mesaba Wing (B), the agents wouldn't help me or even listen (my request, an e-ticket print on stock, was quite simple, IMHO).

They would tell me that they were Mesaba and not Northwest Airlines. One in particular at B1 (my inbound gate agent) was extremely rude and nasty about it to me. She said she was Mesaba, not NW, and was just "too busy" -- yet she didn't appear busy either, by any means.

Excuse me, but doesn't Mesaba represent Northwest? Don't they have the same computer systems to where they could punch a few keys and do the same thing as an agent in concourse A? They're wearing NWA logo-wear?

All the "Mesaba" agents I spoke with tried to get me to go to the passenger service desk at C, but when I got there, I got the "airlink only", were're not NWA, runaround as well.

On the bright side, I did a Mesaba flight this morning, which departed A concourse, with the Avro, which was much better. Proper boarding, pre-departure drinks, and great service.

I could live without the pre-departure drinks on shorter flights, but to overhear the FA's complaining about upgrades on the RJ-85, talking about "other" employment, gate agents not doing their job, failure of processing elite waitlists, and the bad attitude in general I experienced such as not being willing to assist me in DTW rubbed me the wrong way.

As a very loyal customer, I don't think I'm asking for anything unreasonable. At DTW I was sent on a goose chase and ended up running the underground tunnel between A and B two times (r/t) because of the unwillingness of any NW/Mesaba employee to help me at DTW B.

All I wanted was an official e-ticket print-out (on stock) to provide to another carrier operating out of B (CO) for a re-booking as CO had trouble pulling my e-ticket. I wasn't wanting an endorsement or anything special as CO agreed to take me as a pax w/o endorsement, just an e-ticket print on stock as CO couldn't grab my e-ticket via computer.

When I had it done at A, it took about 30 seconds. Could NW Airlink Employees/Mesaba at DTW not of done this? It's not like I wasn't a NWA Airlink/Mesaba customer either.

On the bright side, I found many lovely, wonderful, and helpful NWA employees in A who assisted me (and went well above and beyond my initial request).

I'd really like to make a complaint or at least raise my concerns to management, but am I in the right in doing so? I suspect I am, but I generally don't like to complain or sound like a whiner -- but this just really rubbed me the wrong way.

Furthermore, I was traveling on an upper bucket yield ticket. Is this how Mesaba treats elite pax on high yield tix these days?

NWA mainline on the other hand has been absolutely wonderful! CO was great too, getting me to the NYC area with the only operational flight to the entire NYC area from DTW on Friday evening, otherwise my trip would of been ruined this past weekend.

I know weather happens, but kudos to NW *mainline* and CO for saving my trip.

Best,

SDF_Traveler

P.S. Sorry for the rant, it was a very frustrating experience. Feedback/comments would be much appreciated.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

[This message has been edited by SDF_Traveler (edited Dec 09, 2003).]