Compensation for NW incompetence?
 

I was on a flight that was BWI-MSP-SJC. When I got to BWI the flight was delayed because pilots had just arrived and were getting the plane ready for takeoff. Overall, it was a 40 minute delay. I was annoying to sit on the plane an extra 40 minutes, but no big deal... I had a 4 1/2 hour layover. Next at MSP, we were suppossed to take off at 8:50 PM to get to SJC by 10:30 PM. Wouldn't you know it... same problem. They announced it to all the passangers without a timeframe, but at 8:45 we started boarding. I thought that maybe we'd only be 10-15 minutes late. Little did I know the pilots weren't even close. They didn't get there until 9:45 and then the plane didn't take off until 10:40 PM. Almost a 2 hour delay. By the time I get to San Jose it's 1 AM. The person giving me a ride works the graveyard shift so I pay $30 for a cab. Not to mention I don't get to sleep until 3 AM. My 13 year old sister was cranky as hell, making everything 10 times worse.

Who would have thought that lighting could strike twice. I've never heard of Pilots being late to a plane before (granted I don't travel often). Anyway, I feel like this is completely Northwests fault. If a bump gets $300 for being delayed 2 hours, shouldn't a plane delayed due to other Northwest issues be subject to the same rules?

What do you guys suggest I do, call for me and my sister and try to get compensation? What should I say?

I wouldn't expect much. Some people have reported getting anywhere from 1,000 to 50,000 miles for delays in this thread. However, most of the ones above 20,000 involved overnight delays and were either Gold or Platinum Elite. As a silver I only got 1,000 miles for a 5 hour delay, in addition to a service recovery pack that everyone got which contained another 1,000 miles, one of the PK036 25/50/75/100 dollar off e-certs, and a $10 food voucher. We had actually all boarded and then had to deplane as they fixed the AC.

That being said it never hurts to call and ask, but I wouldn't expect anything more than a trivial number of miles without elite status.

Happens often. Pilots arrive on planes, too. :)

I agree that you shouldn't expect much for a two hour delay. While it's unfortunate to get hit by lightning twice in one day, the end result -- getting in two hours late -- just isn't one of the more devastating things I can think of in the world of air travel.

Steve

It never hurts to provide feedback on a negative (or positive) experience. But, I would write to them - calling isn't the right way to do it. Refrain from name calling, etc. Try to politely express your level of frustration. You've suffered through the unpleasant experience. Might as well try to get some kind of compensation to offset some of the unpleasantness.

Where should I write to?

Talk to Us on nwa.com is probably a good choice.

I've heard that a delay of under 2 hours will get you bupkis. If you have elite status, they might throw 1,000 miles at you, but maybe not even then. The fact that your first flight was delayed is not terribly significant (albeit annoying and frustrating) since you were delayed less than 2 hours to your final destination. A $300 voucher is completely unreasonable.

Not to get the OP's hopes up, but in March I had a two-hour delay DTW-AUS and I received 2500 bonus miles without even asking for them. I don't have elite status either--the letter just sort of showed up in the mail and voila, I checked online and the miles had posted to my account.

When I fly Ryanair, I expect delays and understand it's part of their Low Cost Carrier program of being to not compensate for errors and they're up front with it.

When I am charged up the arse I expect to be paying for certain things, one of which happens to be an assurance that things will not go wrong and that if they do that I'll be taken care of. Why is northwest not held responsible for being on time and their equipment issues if I am held responsible for showing up on time and having my documents. They are a business, and if they are getting my business I expect them to be ready to fulfill their end of the deal. When their pilots are late that's their liability. I mean, of course I understand weather issues, or any case when it's not in their control, but this was not the case and I feel like this is not carrying out their end of the deal.

In one post you claim not to travel often (yet list UA & AA as your programs, and you are flying on NW :cool: ), and in another post you compare it to your experiences on Ryanair?

If I received $150/hr. for delays, I'd be flying free.

Will they actually board an aircraft without pilots on board? Any time I've had a crew delay situation it seems you are kept in the terminal until the crew arrives. :confused:

They'll board without pilots, but not without F/As. Need to keep an eye on you. Oh and get you off again if something happens...

Well, not often by flyertalk's standards. I'm a college kid, but I'm learning about your ways.

Most of my miles right now are credit card related. I have a decent deal of RDMs but as far as EQMs... about 10,000 altogether.

As far as Northwest, I feel like they should have made a small gesture to the passangers on the flight, like a free (usually $3) snackbox or something. Last year, I was on Jetblue and they gave us $25 certificates for a stop in Salt Lake that was the result of strong headwinds. I was impressed at their gesture when the extra stop wasn't even their fault. And guess what, the $25 was later spent on another $100 flight, so in the end they just got more business from it. I haven't flown jetblue since, but you know, it wasn't half bad for me or for them I imagine.

There was quite a bit of this happening this weekend. All of our employee groups are running on a skeleton crew. You just cant squeeze the work of 11,000 employees out of 9,000 without amending the operation.

I believe you must know that your pilots didn't oversleep or just have to finish 18 holes. Either their inbound aircraft was late (remember, we do much more than one flight a day), or something happened to the scheduled cockpit crew, and your pilots were replacements called in at the last minute.

My guess would be the original crew exceeded the FAA allowable flight hours. Our patterns are so constructed that they push the maximum allowable time. There are daily and weekly restrictions. Everyone is currently flying maximum allowable all the time. That said, one little mechanical, or weather issue, or long taxi, or whatever puts us over the max, and that's that.

All of our bases ran out of staff all weekend. Personally, I left Thursday for a one day trip, and had my trip changed 6 times to cover short flights. I got home last night about midnight. That's a long day trip! Your pilots were most likely reserve pilots called out at the last minute. I'm not at all surprised it happened twice. Quite a few cancelled because there just wasn't anyone to work the flights.

I know this doesn't explain away your inconvienence, but I thought it might at least let you see it from the inside.