I just had a future flight affected by the recent change in flight times. My orginal flight was scheduled to leave at 6:47 pm, which is perfect when leaving work at 5:00 pm. My choices now are 5:21 pm, which I would have to leave work early, and 9:20 pm, which now gets me into SEA at 10:55 pm instead of 8:35 pm on the orginal reservation.

My question is, does anyone have an e-mail address of someone higher up the corporate ladder in either NWA or World Perks that I can complain to and try to get some free miles to make me happy?

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VP info

Beth Shultis
Vice President of Marketing
Northwest Airlines, Inc.
2700 Lone Oak Parkway
Eagan, MN 55121-1534
or email [email protected]


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Sorry mama i gots to get all the miles i can

Brian

Flight times are always being tweaked every schedule change.

It happens to me a lot too. We have to recognize that frerquency of flights and equipment changes are going to keep happening while the airline industry struggles to make a profit.

I would just switch the ticket to the best time you can.

NWA has no obligation to comp you anything for changing the schedule. This is a "nuisance complaint" without any solid basis.

[This message has been edited by Radiocycle (edited 09-02-2002).]

Suggestion-Just call NWA res line, be reasonable, be nice and they will work with you to get things straightened out.

You are entitled to the alternative flight(s) of your choice OR a refund.

Taking such a claim up the "corporate ladder" is a gigantic waste of time for everyone involved, imo.

I'm curious about the comment about "entitled to an alternative flight". That has not been our experience at all I posted our problem about 3 weeks ago( under Lousy way to start a vacation)...flight to Grand Cayman being moved from 10:30AM to 6:30AM. We wanted to leave the night before for DTW to ensure making that only flight day to Cayman since the on time/cancellation history of the early DSM-DTW was not very good. NW originally made us take "the last flight out" of DSM the night before that got us into DTW at 1am. That was ok when leaving a 10, not ok when leaving at 6:30am.Now, rather than it being our choice to go to DTW the night before we have to to make the flight at 6;30am. To date, after many phone calls and emails to NW and trying to be nice all the way, they have done ZIP to help us...only response is they'd let us cancel and redeposit our miles...not the answer for us and a long awaited Christmas trip. All we wanted was to leave DSM late afternoon. As of now we start our vacation sleeping in the Detroit airport from 1am til checkin starts for the 6:30 flight. So don't count on much help from NW on a flight time change.

One hour and twenty minutes is hardly worth complaining about. Yes, there's been quite a bit of schedule tweaking lately, but with the hard time the airline industry has faced, we need to cut them some slack regarding schedule changes.

If your flight is still a couple of months away, there's always the possibility that sufficient demand could result in the reinstatement of the 6:47 p.m. flight. Being patient with this is probably the better course.

Unfortunately in the case of FF tickets many rules do not apply. That being said, if you are unhappy NW with the alternatives offered in cases of schedule changes [in this case sadly none at all], you can receive a refund -- something NW has indeed offered you in this case.

A bit much to conclude NW won't help based on a single case however.

Milesmom - I wanted to tell you this when you first posted your problem.

The 6am DSM-DTW is operated by Mesaba on an Avro RJ85. If you're worried about reliability, I would be more worried on a NW a/c. NW is a very reliable airline and has a very high completion factor, but if it helps, Mesaba reaches far past NW in performance. Mesaba ranks higher in ontime performance when compared to any of the majors and all but 1 of the commuter airlines. Some statistics: For the period April - June Mesaba had the 2nd higest completion factor, among the regionals, bested only by Coex. Our #s were 98.5%. Ontime performance for the same period was85.6% better than any major airline and better than all the regionals except 1 and that is our fierce rival, Pinnacle who came in at 89.9%.

So, if you're worried about reliability, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on that. You're on a red taild airplane and the odds of getting you to where you need to go ontime is very good.

Incidently, DSM is a line maintenance facility for the Avro, so occasionally when doing line maintenance things may be found, which could hamper the departure. That is probably why the statistics aren't so great. I'm curious to see the rating however, as Mesaba isn't a mjor airline or one who subscribes to a CRS.

AZJ

what is the minimum flight time change (half hour, one hour, etc.) that would result in a refund?

is it ANY change?

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 09-09-2002).]

"Thanks for holding, Mr. fly co to see the yanks. Appearently your departure time has changed from 12:05PM to 12:02PM. How would you like us to proceed? Is this acceptable to you? Or would you prefer a refund?"

that's a bit of an exaggeration.

any thoughts otherwise?

[This message has been edited by fly co to see the yanks (edited 09-09-2002).]

What about "flight time changed at short notice". My wife got a call last night from NW telling her today's flight had been cancelled, and that she was rebooked on an earier flight via a different routing (2 stops). Fortunately she could leave the hour earlier, but 12 hours notice is cutting it kinda close....

they could have not called and your wife could have showed up at the airport to find out her flight was canceled, leaving her no option. Short notice, yes...but at least they informed her before she was at the airport.

fly co to see the yanks,

When your flight time is significantly changed (usually by more than an hour) or cancelled, you can have any flight you want (but it has to be the most direct routing). If the time change has been drastic (usually several hours), you can have any flight you want on any airline (must be the most direct).

An example of this:
Recently I traveled to RNO. NW offered two flights, both to MSP (connecting onto DTW). The afternoon flight was cancelled (for the rest of the season). I was automatically reaccommodated onto the 6AM. I called up to inquire about my flight options � I was prepared to argue for a refund because of the short duration of my trip, but an agent immediately informed me that I could 1) accept the 6AM flight, 2) accept a refund or 3) accept a flight on AA departing within 15 minutes of my original flight and arriving 20 minutes later. I accepted option 3.