I am a platinum elite on Continental. I made a bad decision by deciding to fly with Northworst on my upcoming trip to Europe. I made a reward ticket reservation for 2 on business first (80,000 miles since they have 3 cabins vs. 100,000 miles on Continental's first due to 2 cabins) last February. My wife and I had our first child this April. Back in February, I could, under the Continental policy add an infant on a lap for free with a reduced mileage award (approximately 15,000 miles). As it stands now, one must pay 10% of the fare to have an infant sit on your lap (sure makes Southwest Airlines look great, with no such ridiculous policy). I was told that since the child was not born, I could not take advantage of the infant award until the baby was born.

I just got off a lengthy call with Northworst and was told the infant reward no longer applies, as the rules were changed in March so Continental and Northwest's policies would match. Further, since we are flying business first, they want to charge the infant on my lap 10% of the BUSINESS FIRST rate (approximately $780). Yet, if I sat in coach, the baby would cost just over $100.

I am in shcok that an airline would discriminate the fare of a lap child. What extra services is my child getting by sitting on my business first lap vs. my coach lap? Certainly not $700 worth of service. The Northworst agent (not customer service agent, they don't know what customer service is) had the nerve to lie to me by saying the 10% policy was a government mandated policy, which turned out to be a lie, and further had the nerve to say that Northworst doesn't make any money by charging the extra 10%. I find that hard to believe, as they will earn an extra $780 for absolutely nothing.

Northworst should step up to the plate and honor my request to grandfather an infant reward instead of penalizing me for sitting in business class and paying a 10% fare that almost equals the full cost of a coach ticket. If Northworst don't my request, I might as well use another 50,000 miles and book a coach seat for my daughter that will then go unused, so at least Northworst will lose the revenue of that seat. Seems silly that Northworst would rather lose the revenue of a seat than allow me to use miles for a child to sit on my lap.

This is absolutely unacceptable and Northworst should be ashamed to call themselves an airline. Continental is so far superior, next time I will spend the extra 20,000 miles so at least I am treated like a person. I demand action and expect my request to be honored or else ...

I have had such bad customer service from Northwest that I won't even consider flying them. Is there any way you can reclaim your 80K miles and get a CO award instead? You'll be glad you did...

QL

I'm not sure this infant squirrelyness (sp?) is just Northwest's doing--one of my coworkers who is a AA Platinum Exec with oodles of miles called about 6 mos ago to book a business class award ticket TPA-Madrid on AA using IB flights through MIA. He was then going on to the Canary Islands. His son was not yet born. He was quoted a 10% fare of appx $100 for his son, which was duly noted on his record. He thought this fair.

Comes time to book the tickets, and AA tries to tell him "oh, you have to pay about $500 for your 5 month old son because both you and your wife are in Business Class". He is absolutely fuming, but did have the presence of mind to recall that the lower fare was documented in his record. After a long time on the phone with AA platinum desk, he finally got it for the $100.

It does seem a bit strange--I (and he) understand that there is a need for recordkeeping etc that is increased proportionately by an additional soul on board the plane, but $100 certainly would cover that cost--$500 is extortionate!

jl

Several we

Gorden Bethune turned CO around after the Lorenzo era. NWA has a ways to go and could get there, yet it presently seems to be going in the wrong direction! There is a reason why the current Consumer Reports survey (6/99) gave it the absolute lowest customer satisfaction rating! Note that at least AA attempted to straighten out the problem!

The 10%-fare rule is pretty standard on all international flights, as opposed to domestic ones where they're free. As for 10% of what, I tend to agree with your view on that matter.

As far as I can tell, the only airline that officially allows you to use points for the kid is Air Canada , which has international infant awards in both classes for 10% of the mileage an adult would pay in the same class.

I always found it strange that kids under 2 were free domestically and yet paid 10% internationally, while kids over 2 pay full fare domestically and yet get a 25-30% discount internationally! There must be some logic there but it escapes me.