If you thought you ever had it bad when dealing with your airline's FF customer service, I think this is right up there with the worst I have ever heard.

Generally, I have found that AA FF customer service has been very helpful and generally tries their best to help me with FF awards. When AA has changed or cancelled an award flight, I have found that they are very accomodating in rerouting me and/or changing my dates of transfer to accomodate MY schedule.
http://airlinebiz.com/wire/06272000

"Northwest 'Customer First' program puts customers 'last'

M I N N E A P O L I S - 27JUN2000 (AJN) Northwest Airlines' CEO
John Dasburg must be living in a cave if he thinks NWA has made
any progress toward better customer service. World Perk Frequent
Flyers are not even immune to NWA's poor customer relations...."

FWIW...I am new to NW but will be flying my first flight with them July 1. I also joined NWAClub because the offer seemed to be a no-brainer. In the NWA Club E-mail there were several offers, one of which was a $50 discount code on travel. I copied the coupon code and pasted it into my reservation booking for the trip. Well, when my confirmation came I noticed the discount had not been applied so I E-mailed them. The E-support people were very nice and prompt but at the end of the day I had to contact the customer support desk people, which I again did Friday.

I was initially lectured by the person about waiting until the day before my travel to deal with the situation, even though my paper trail began two weeks ago after making the reservation. I did not need a "customer service supervisor" lecturing me. Tell me what I can do, not what I cannot do is a phrase I try to live by. Well, she finally told me they would send me a $50 transpo voucher to make up for the loss of the coupon value.

A few things crossed my mind. 1) If she was going to help me, why the lecture and the poor manner in which I was dealt with? 2) If this is any indication how NW operates I don't know how smart it was to establish a relationship with them, except to say that they do have a good entry in the Omaha market where I have a need. 3) Knowing that I am a new customer and could have chosen one of my other "regular" carriers, why would I be dealt with that way?
Well, I will let the trip this week tell the story. With the Memphis connection triple miles and first time online bonuses, I will about have enough miles for a free ticket and if I am not convinced that they want my business I will top off the account with hotel and car rental points to get the free ticket and then be done with them.

After NW started the "partnership" with Continental I thought that I'd try them to see if they were as bad as I had heard.

Based on my limited experiences on two round trips they were.

By the way, they should have refunded your credit card, not given you the difference in an MCO. ?


Well, my service with them has been good at times, and bad.

Rerouted serveral times, generously, in order to give me a first class seat when I was a silver member. Way to go CMH elite agents. Other good experiences, but nothing outstanding.

In the past month, however, it's been a bit egregious. Had an apparently new NW Perks agent insist that silver elite members (my wife) were not allowed to have preferred seating. Only gold and platinum. Really, I re-explained clearly, twice, that silver elites were allowed to select some of the first rows of coach. Said nope. I called back and the NW agent followed up, apologized and tracked down the other agent to correct. Said it was a new call center...


Several days ago tried to book a companion cert on NW. The cert, on the back said "full-fare ticket" which the agent insisted was a full Y. (Yes, I'd like to book an 1800 dollar ticket and pay 129 for my wife.) As many of us know, this "full fare ticket" refers to the person paying the full ticket price. Not one word of "Y." Same wording, albeit vague at times, as we see on the NW and CO certs. So the elite agent asked the "rate specialist/supervisor" in Seattle, Kathy, and Kathy insisted that it is indeed a Full Y. Next day elite agent said that sometimes Seattle gets the late night elite calls and doesn't know what's going on. Okay.

Also, my impression over two years of with both NW/CO: with NW I find they, especially supervisors are "policy focused" and rigid when exceptions are warranted given individual circumstances. CO seems more "people focused" and thus I've had a numerous CO supervisiors listen and often find a fair rememdy. The former tends to treat rules as absolute, and the latter, as general. Indicative of managment philosophy. CO is wins in this respect.


JL2

In general the agents at Northwest JUST DON'T CARE. At $8.00 an hour Who would.

A little off the topic, but has anyone else NOT been receiving their ff miles from long distance calls with Sprint? They never added on my START UP miles (for signing up with Sprint) or my monthly miles (although they did charge me the tax on the miles!!!) which I didn't catch on to at first. I don't think they've been adding them on since I phoned them about it 4 months ago, either. These darn phone bills are so confusing with their 10 different types of calls, I'm never sure how many miles I'm actually supposed to be receiving/which $ amt. I should go by, multiply by 5 for miles. Sorry, just wanted to vent and see if anyone else was in my shoes!

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Working on a totally free trip to Disney World!!!