Something similar happened to me last Wednesday night. I asked the GA at DTW if I could upgrade to WBC somehow heading to LGW. GA said he could not upgrade anybody. Once on board, someone else asked about an upgrade because WBC had a couple of empty seats. The purser said he could use cash or credit card to do so. Is that the purser's call, or should the GA have offered the same when I asked?

Everytime I have received a reply like this I have received something other then miles. On two occasions I received credit vouchers for $250. Another time I received a gift box from harry and David.

When I've gotten miles, they have just emailed it in the reponse.

That is really nice and don't get me wrong, I am very happy to hear that other NW customers have had good experiences...I was encouraged to write to the CEO and COB about my problems with mixed messages and nasty phone communication from a supervisor. I got a letter from the "executive communications" department. He said that "the described clearly falls far short of our high standard." He didn't admit that this actually happened and slipped and slid through the rest of the communication. I got zero, zip, nada...no resolution of my problem nor a genuine apology, never mind a fruit basket or heaven forbid...miles/and or cash.

I called last night trying to change my ticket DTW/NRT/BKK and got a seat on the requested flight, only to be told that it would require $1,100/tkt to make the change! That is one expensive change!

I am getting bitter :(.

The Results...Part 1
 

I was looking at my account today and the miles fairy deposited a nice 15,000 mile bonus...

I am supposed to receive a response in the mail so I am interested to see what it says or if there is anything else in it (I SO could use a TCV for a last minute flight to make plat)...

Thanks NW for showing that you DO care...

Gary

nice bonus

Especially in DTW!
I have experienced this more than once. Travelling DTW-AMS-BOM on Northwest, I requested the gate agent at DTW for a reseating on my AMS-BOM sector for an aisle seat. Here comes the canned reply, sorry we cannot do that, you'll have to ask at AMS. On asking why, got another canned reply it is KLM, when actually it was an NW flight on NW metal. Noticing that this lady is not only lazy, but also ignorant, I chose to go to another agent standing next to her, go it done, after which I also took time to show her what the other agent could do for me!

Ok...just when you think its over...

I get a letter today from one of Beth's assistants apologizing for the situation (I already received 1 letter from an SVP in HR apologizing). In addition to the 15,000 miles I received 4 North/South America Any Fare upgrade certs. Now of course that isnt too fantastic to a PE that gets F all the time, but I do know how rare these are and how happy some of my family will be using them.

Great Job NW in keeping this flyer around for a LONG time.

Gary

Nice they could take care of you... They are genuinely good people at NW.

I'll swap your upgrade certs for a nice Harry and David fruit basket! :D

CO vs NW
 

On NW yes i've seen people pulled up from coach at the last minute to FC, usually because they need the coach seat. This happened to my boyfriend this past horrid holiday week (probably the only good thing that happened to him).

On CO, even if they give you the FC is full talk, I've often been upgraded (or the results of an EUA) while they scan my coach boarding pass, which beeps then spits out a little reciept with the new seat number. Since this has happened multiple times, I don't even ask the GA anymore about upgrades.

Why doesn't NW have this type of automation? It would give the usually stressed out GA one less thing to do and solve the "lazy" GA problem.

So can we really be bought over so easily? Reading the start of the thread I am suprised how easily one can be won over by a few miles and effectively useless upgrade certificates (why not 4 WBC upgrade certificates that they know would really make a difference). None even comes near to compensating for the poor treatment you received. Even if this is the end of the chapter I am suprised that those miles and vouchers are enough to convince you to stay around NW for a LONG time. I suppose till the next time it happens and then more vouchers come along. Surely what we need is better service and not useless miles and vouchers? To me all they have succeeded in doing is hushing up one disgruntled passenger and very cheaply at that.

Maybe you might make a greater impact if you reject both the miles and upgrade certificates which are a derisory recompense for the poor treatment you received.

Well, since I was the one that was involved, I will answer that comment...

Why am I happy? Well, mainly because they actually cared about what happened. Nowadays, most customer service companies, especially the larger ones, are not too concerned with the individual buyer. To me the reward did not matter - it was only a 45 min flight and I feel the compensation more than makes up for what I lost. If I had paid for a WBC ticket to Paris and been denied the seat then I would expect a LOT more (SEVERAL WBC upgrade certs, refund on the ticket cost for WBC, about 50,000 miles, maybe the right to physically harm the GA that downgraded me for no reason) but we are talking about a DTW-ORD flight. This is only a little problem, but I got good feedback from the VPs so I am happy.

Gary

If the certificates are what I think they are (Confirmed Any Fare Upgrade), they're far from useless. To the contrary, those valuable pieces of paper allow you to confirm a seat in F even before the Platinums get EUA'ed. Before I earned status, I used those certificates all the time and rode up front on K fares.

Edit: Okay, I've realized that for a Platinum, these certificates are usually unnecessary. Even as a Silver, I was batting 1.000 on upgrades until this month. Still, the certificates are transferable, so you can make someone else very happy. When my (non-Elite) partner and I lived over 2,000 miles apart, I gave her a certificate so she could experience flying up front.

Who knows if FC was checked in full or not, but assuming it was....

It could easily be a result of people being able to checkin online long before the flight, then they miss a connection, etc but the seat has not yet been released. In these cases, the agent could be 100% correct, even though some of those seats will NOT be in use by departure time.

Hmmm... if they would enforce the get onboard rules, then the seats could get released.

I think it is the gesture that is the more important point here.