Vulcan

Recently, I was falling behind on CO Platinum Elite qualification for next year. My wife and I deceided to do a mileage run on July 3. I was aware that there were some special holiday fares on the NW web site. I booked RT EWR-MSP-IAH-MSP-EWR, on 6/30, on the web for $ 129 RT. The two outbound flights were CO codeshare flights, and in bound were NW planes. I called NW and got coach seat assignments, the reservationist having confirmed that paper tickets were Fedexed to me earlier that night. Later that night I called CO for upgrades, since my wife and I are both Platinum ELite. The OnePass Center confirmed our CO upgrades and then called NW and got us F/C seats on the NW segments. Two days later the tickets arrived. They were issued at full F/C charge of $ 2,400 each!!!! Apparently, the tickets had not actually been issued when CO called for the upgrades and this act caused them to be issued for $ 2,400! NW is well known for is lack of customer service and my experience confirms it. One person in the WEB Service Area figured out what happened and put an explanation in the PNR as to how to correct it when we got to the airport. Needless to say, it got messier and took 1 1/2 hours at EWR to straighten out (All they had to do wa issue a refund for the F/C tickets and reissue the tickets at $ 129.) All the seats we reserved disappeared, despite everyone insisting that could not happen. I went to the phone immediately after getting the new tickets at NW and called CO where they re-upgraded us on the CO segments. Then they called NW and got a run around for 1/2 hour, with NW insisiting only full fare tickets could be upgraded. We left our fate in the competent hands of a very helpfull CO Onepass rep. The CO segments went fine. When we got to IAH, we tried to check in at the Presidents Club for the return NW flights. The receptionist saw us on her CO screen and called NW to tell them that they were issuing boarding passes. Only NW insisted we had no reservations, despite what it said on the CO screen and despite having paper tickets issued by NW several hours earlier. This took another 1 1/2 hours and a trip to NW at Terminal B to settle, where I finally met a one of the few NW reps with common sense. She admitted she was confused and said "Why don't I just put you in F/C on a CO flight leaving in 30 minutes. We said FINE! The moral is be very carefull when upgrading code share flights where paper tickets are issued, as I believe all code shares between CO and NW require and be certain that the tickets HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN ISSUED.

Update-7/26/99
It just gets worse. NW's policy is that it takes 3-21 days to post a credit. It took 20 days to post the credit for my ticket. We're now at 24 days for my wife's ($ 2258.) and all I get is a continuing message on the refunds web site that they are looking into it and that it takes 3-21 days. When you call the non-toll free number, you get referred to the internet site I visited. I sent an email to customer service and got a reply that they try to answer in 3 business days, but that it may take up to 20 "business days" (read one month!), which means SEVEN weeks possibly to issue a refund!. I really am trying to give NW some of my business, but they make it very difficult. I have a few more days before I need to call my credit card company and get a temporary credit issued and hope to avoid the hassles and paperwork this creates. We'll see.

&/27- Finally. A message from their web site that says the $ was credited to my card! In my opinion, 24-25 days is poor service, give the fact that all transactions were directly with NW. They really need to work on their customer service. CO is light years better.

[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 07-26-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 07-27-1999).]

diver

Wow, what a nighmare. NW also lost my reservation last year. I went to a ticket office to purchase the ticket and they tried to charge me so much more because they said that there was no record of my reservation. I ended up having to leave later just so I could keep the fare that I had reserved.