NWA.com bugs, issues and feature requests
 

[Updated July 10, 2008 @ 7:05am PDT]

NOTE:The following list has been updated and now shows all bugs/issues/problems related to the "updated" nwa.com website in BLUE. These are the bugs that have been posted since the "updated" website came online.

NOTE:The list has been scrubbed and all issues shown in RED are those that have been here since before the new website came online and are still confirmed to be a bug.

All...as mentioned when I started this thread, I'd like to compile a list of known bugs and issues at nwa.com so that any IT employee from NW lurking here might be able to see some of the frustrations that the user community face. Alternatively, some of the regular FT'ers on this site have access to NW staff to funnel these bugs through.

I'm unabashedly copying the format of the CO.com master thread at the CO forum with a few minor changes.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with NW or its partners. I just fly them a lot.

Posting rules
Please refrain from posting the same thing someone else has posted unless you are adding more detail to the post (e.g. steps to reproduce the bug, etc.).
Also, if you do not wish to enter your bug here in the forum, you can PM me and I'll be happy to add it to the list.

Wishlist (new features you'd like to see)

• Should be able to select which flight(s) as part of an existing itinerary that you would like to use miles to upgrade. Website should not force you to search for upgrades on all segments.
• NW must bring back "P" seats to the windows. It's absurd that those who like window seats often can't get them, especially at the last minute, because non-elites have taken them all up. This is especially bad on the A330 where the P seats take up all aisle seats in front of row 29. When booking just a few days out, all window seats are taken and the only seats left are middle seats. This is NOT acceptable to elites.
• Should be able to use Search by Price/Schedule regardless of origin or destination. Today this feature is only valid for flights departing the US and Canada.
• Specify booking class and fare code for each flight separately.
• EUA process should read the elites seating preference (window vs aisle) and assign seats accordingly.

Booking

• Sporadic issues with using stored credit cards during booking. After entering the CCV number, nwa.com complains the number is wrong. Logging out and back in can fix this issue.
• Fare inconsistency between the multiple ways you can search on nwa.com. Sometimes searching by schedule and manually choosing flights turns out cheaper than if the same exact flights showed up via search by price. Also, searching +/- days or weekend flex can return cheaper or more expensive results.
• Viewing fare rules for an itinerary just before purchasing will display an error that "fare rules are no longer available online" for any fare rule after the first one for a particular flight itinerary.
• Non-NW partner flights often show up, especially on TransAtl/TransPac/IntraEurope. These should not be shown.
• When searching for flights in the future and selecting a month for the outbound flight, the return flight month should jump to at least the same month.
• Website no longer stores WP # when booking a reservation even though the "Save my WorldPerks number" option is checked.
• Doing a multi-city search often bundles several flights together.
• Search by lowest price is often putting direct flights on the top of the list even though they are not the cheapest.
• Choosing a departure timeframe on the nwa.com home page has absolutely no affect on the search results (e.g. choosing "evening" will still show all of the flights leaving at 6am or 7am).
• From nwa.com click "award flights" and enter search criteria. In IE6 and Firefox this returns revenue tickets. Seems to work fine in IE7.
• Can't manually enter a date in a multi-city search on the third leg entry form. The slash "/" key is considered invalid.

Award Travel

• Sporadically the award travel search calendar will not appear.
• Changing award travel online which requires additional miles to be collected causes general system errors (only some times).
• Booking DL award flights through nwa.com often allows you to choose the DL flights but then you receive a message, "One or more of the flights selected is not available. Please try again." Seems that nwa.com doesn't truly know DL's award availability for flights and displays all flights anyway.
• Site returns "no flights found" when NWA JP site and partner airline sites show availability.

Manage Reservations

• Cannot change reservation through nwa.com that has been upgraded with miles.
• [COLOR="red"]When viewing receipt online from View/Manage Reservations and then clicking on the fare basis code, a window pop-up displays "fares rules for this fare basis code are not available." Seems to do this for all fare basis codes.
• Changing reservations online that have already been EUA'd ("R" class) re-prices the itin using "R" class fares for the segments you don't change. E.G. changing the outbound but leaving the return alone, if you don't rebook the return in coach class (even the exact same flights), the itin is repriced using coach on the way out and FC on the return causing a higher fare. Repricing with coach on all segments will potentially show you the same fare or even a cheaper one.
• When booking a reservation with Delta flights you can select your seat during the booking process using "Select Your Seat". However, once you book the ticket and go into your View/Change reservations and click on any flight that is operated by Delta, an error appears saying you cannot select seats for that flight.

Seat Assignments

• Seat assignments for KLM flights should be facilitated online for trans-atlantic flights where KLM allows you to pre-book seats.
• Seat assignments for KLM-coded, NW-operated flights. NWA.com treats these as KL flights and thus does not allow you to select seats.

Flight status & email notification


Check-in

• Can't check in online for the last segment if the ticket(s) include a fare break.

Compatability


Miscellaneous

• See post #48 - gives a link to a webpage that includes references to old aircraft types no longer used by NWA.
• When using TTU to report missing mileage or an incorrect posting to your WP account, you can only enter NW ticket stock numbers (012) -- yet the website will let you enter ticket stock #'s from other airlines (e.g. 005 for CO) and then give you an error when you submit the information because only 012 ticket stock can be used.

This is a helpful thread and a great idea.

I would hope we can keep it relatively on point and not veer off into discussions about feature requests, upgrades not processing, etc. Just a bug list. :)

1. Login for awards and being redirected to regular flight search, also being logged in to view account, but then needing to login again for award searches.

2. Maybe this isn't a bug, but you can't search awards by schedule and choose NW for the first leg with another carrier on the second.

I second this one. VERY annoying!!

I think NW is much too quick on the logout trigger. (An issue not a bug.)

Let me third this. It is very annoying.

I've had erratic results with changing award reservations online. If there are additional miles to be collected the system requires the account holder to be logged in, but even with this login the system will trigger the error sometimes. Other times it works nicely though.

Many times of late nwa.com has refused some of my credit cards that are stored in the My Info. Usually you just have to enter the CCV number when using a stored card, and when I do this, it tells me the CCV number is incorrect, even when I try using the card as if it were a new card not in my account. Very, very annoying. Sometimes I log out, log back in, attempt the purchase again and everything goes like clockwork.

Searching for KLM flights is very limited. Not all combinations of flights show up (and I'm talking about simple X-AMS-Y RT combinations, nothing fancy). Of the very few ones that do show up, you can't select an outbound flight and then go through the list of return possibilities. As soon as you clock on "Choose this flight" it says "no flights found between X and Y for that date". That's clearly not true.

Calendar availability bugs
 

Has anyone else experienced problems with the award availability calendar popping up? For the record, yes, I make sure I am logged in first. The calendar always would pop up in the past; during the last two weeks it's been sporadic. Sometimes both departing and returning calendars come up; sometimes just departing shows up and no returning; and just tonight I could get both departure and return calendars for AMS availability but nothing would come up for for GIG or BKK.

Big Bug:

Try search "PHX->PEK" round trip on any date (e.g. JUL13 and JUL20), do NOT check "Search one day before and after".

Then search the same thing. This time check the "Search one day before and after" box.

See what happens. The 2nd search doesn't return the lowest fare.

no more award search calendar
 

nwa.com does not show award search calendar anymore?

That sucks... it's one of the nice features of NW web.:( :(

I finally found the time to upgrade the master post and format it into something that is more logical and easier to read.

Thanks to those who have posted already. I hope a lot more of you post and we can make this into a powerful thread that can be taken to NWA for action (sounds good, don't know if it will happen).

As the master post says, feel free to PM me if you would rather not post your issue.

Finally, please, please do not turn this thread into a flaming war, a general discussion, etc. Everyone's feedback is welcome and valued and everyone is entitled to their opinion/request. We don't really need to see "I agree" or "good thinking" posts unless you have a different bug/issue/request to add :) By refraining from these posts, it makes it a lot easier to manage.

Thanks,
RM

I have found that when the departure and return are specific and close it is sporadic. By entering the first day of the month as the departure and the last day as the return it will give you the calender for the entire Month for both. Give it a try...it works but they should fix this bug.

Married segments bug, OLCI wish
 

When searching for flights especially using the multisegment option, nwa.com will return routing options that can't be booked when selected. You recieve an error message 101, fare not available, but in reality it ends up being that the fare class is not available for one of the married segments. Can't they check that first before returning your routing options?

When will they get rid of the segment limitation for using OLCI? C'mon 4 segment trips are a reality.

Thanks for the thread. Great Idea