Based on the OP's posts, I completely agree

:rolleyes:

<<<<<<<<I booked a trip for my husband and I for December using my world perk miles. ...... If I have made mistakes, please point them out and I will be happy to correct.

I HATE to do this, but it should be: "I booked a trip for my husband and me for December..."

and not: "I booked a trip for my husband and I for December..."

(To check whether to use "me" or "I", simply leave off the words "my husband and" to yield the more easy to choose option).

I also hate to say it, but the nick "Sue-Mi" sounds awful trollish! ;) But I'm sure you are actually quite righteous! Sorry about the ex-English major action! :eek:

Whoa! I think you are playing the unpatriotic card here a little early. The agent you spoke to doesn't know you personally, so how is s/he to know that you are not making this all up to get out of paying the fees? It sounds like better communication could have been had from the agent, to tell you how to appeal this decision, but that is by no means being unpatriotic. Call again and speak to a supervisor or send an email to TTU. You should be able to garner better information the second time around.

As others have mentioned, you will probably have to fax or post mail documentation proving deployment to get fees waived. NW is in the business to make money and limit fraud. Go through the proper channels and I think all will be well.

Best of luck!

I don't see a sense of entitlement here.

Even on nonrefundable tickets, they can be refunded in full with no fees if military orders prevent travel. If there is a death or illness in the family, same thing.

All the OP is asking for is the same respect to be given to her award ticket. Regardless of your views on the military, deployments are unforseen and necessary. Going on deployment is totally out of the persons control (just like a family member dying) and should be given full advantage to take care of lingering business (like an airline ticket) beforehand.

I seriously doubt that the "no name change" is an FAA regulation. I am pretty sure it is an airline-imposed restriction. In fact, I recall an airline recently mentioning that they allow name changes.

I know that Jet Blue allows anyone to use someone else's credit for unused tickets and I think the same goes with Southwest. Not exactly the same thing, but not government-imposed. All legacy carriers require credit from unused tickets to be used only by the originally-ticketed passenger.

There are lots of situations out of our control that still incur penalties - death in the family does not always mean you get a refund or no penalty for a change. Same goes with tickets to attend meetings that were canceled by others - certainly out of our control but the airlines still impose fees to cancel/change.

Land of the free (ticket change), home of the brave!
 

I rather think that the military is being unpatriotic by having him deployed in Iraq around the holidays. I mean, what gives them the right? Don't they know that he already had a trip planned?

Or perhaps it's your fault because you don't fly enough? If you were a platinum elite, you would pay no redeposit, or telephone booking fees.

And since you've been making great scarifies for 20 years, you would think you would be cognizant of the chance of deployment. There is this little war thing that's going on.

In the end, I'd guess that NWA will probably refund the change fees. They seem to be pretty customer friendly when presented with a documented case. I don't quite understand why you wouldn't go on the trip by yourself, or just buy the ticket outright for whatever companion is going with you. Reward inventory changes all the time, and what may be available one day, is gone the next.

Your whole slant that NWA is trying to take advantage of you is ludicrous.

Before I made Platinum on NWA, I maid numerous changes to award tickets and paid the change fee. I knew that if I wanted to change it, I'd pay for it. No crying, or whining that NWA was taking advantage of me. The draft has been over for quite some time, and anyone who is serving in the military does it by choice. I feel deep empathy for the soldiers who are serving in harms way, but they are there by choice.

LOL, thanks for the English lesson.;) Sue-Mi. may sound trollish, but that is OK with me. I am Sue and I am from Michigan hence Sue-Mi.:D
When I said: go easy on me that if I had made a mistake to let me know and I would fix it. I was thinking of things like making sure I had posted in the correct place.

The fact that this situation has been posted publicly is exactly why NW shouldn't waive the fees. If they do, and it's posted here, every Tom Dick & Harry with a situation as insignificant as a hangnail will be asking for 'change fee forgiveness'. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, unpatriotic, or un-anything else you may feel, or maybe I'm just spoiled being Platinum and don't have to pay any fees, I just feel that all programs have rules. Sometimes they work FOR you and sometimes they work AGAINST you. What can you do.

. . . And by all means - - DO TRY to write to them, and I hope they waive the fees for you!! Good luck!!

How does the sarcasm help?

If I see a uniformed soldier traveling alone, I have, on more than one occasion, swapped seats with him. One was even on a long haul SAN to DTW. He'd just finished up boot camp and was going home, before I assume being deployed.

It's just the right thing to do sometimes. And the smile on their face is worth it.

A big thank you to those of you with helpful information and suggestions!
I called NWA and they did work with me on the issue!
So, hopefully without damage done, I take back what I said about them being unpatriotic!

Sue

Your first action should have been to to go through the chain of command at NWA. If the outcome was unsatisfactory then you should have looked for help or advice on flyertalk. There are a lot of knowledgable people here on flyertalk, and there are a lot of knuckle-heads too who try to pad there post numbers with spelling advice and sarcasm. Some people wear there post numbers like a badge of honor, others just have too much free time on there hands.

Go through the chain of command at NWA, Im sure you will find someone who will help you in some way, maybe not for the outcome that you want, but something fair for you and your husband.

Give the chain of command at NWA a chance first.

Word.

Uff Da!

Let's keep the politics of patriotism out of this and let it be a customer service issue. I DON'T read FT for the "patriot" debate.

Thanks.

Good point. I've deleted the line in that post :)