Hey,

I was flying MCI to DTW today and my flight was delayed 1 hour because they did not have a flight crew. My flight was cutting it close and because of the delay, I was late to a customer meeting. Should I complain? What would NWA do?

Thanks m2onden

If you schedule your flights so tight, then you deserve what you got, nothing. Not trying to be harsh, but delays happen all the time. In particular an hour delay isn't major.

Thats OK, no skin off may back. I have flown NWA over 30 times and this is only the second delay I have had. What kind of delay is "major"?

I would say that anything >= 4hrs I would feel like I had a right to complain. 1-2 hours no, 3 hours maybe.

That's just my opinion though, take it for what it's worth. It gets a bit fuzzier if there were missed connections though - i.e. if I had 1hr to make a connection and that was missed, and the next flight wasn't for another 3 hours... that sucks, but I am not sure if I would complain or not (thoughts?).

What you should get is a very loud LOL. You need to come into the real world.

I'll go ahead and be in the minority -- I think that delays because of poor planning from a management/staffing perspective is the least excusable of reasons for delays. MX and WX and ATC delays happen and are just a fact of life. Being short a crew and not having backup crewmembers available is avoidable. In this case, perhaps it wasn't since your delayed flight was going to, not originating in a hub, but still -- I think the greater frequency of this is a failure in logistics planning and a result of cutbacks to reduce top line costs for NW.

That said, I expect a one hour delay everytime I fly any carrier. (but then again, I go out of NYC...)

If it was only an hour, I'd think they could make up time in the air -- were you a full hour late landing at DTW? Even then, I'd think that since you're connecting in a major hub, they could reaccommodate you pretty easily.

peace,
~Ben~

It looks like it had to be this one:

Flight: 1743
Date: Wed., September 19, 2007

Departs: Kansas City-Int'l, MO ( MCI ) Arrives: Detroit-Wayne County Int'l, MI (DTW)

Gate: 61 Gate: A4

Scheduled: 8:00AM Scheduled: 10:53AM

Actual: 8:56AM Actual: 12:01PM

Aircraft: DC9-30 Weather: DTW

Note: Delayed awaiting inbound flight crew.

The rest of the MCI/DTW flights for Wednesday were on time.

I've had one or two times where I had to get off a late flight and go straight to work, but I learned my lesson and now refuse to schedule anything important right after a flight.

That being said, the NW/KL flights I'm on tend to be pretty punctual, to the point that a couple weeks ago I told some colleagues I'd fly in from AMS, land at SFO just after 1PM on Monday, be on BART by 2, in their town by 3, and at their office at 3:30. For some reason, they acted surprised when I showed up at 3:30, according to the prophecy.

Allow me to speak for "fly co to see the yankees"...

Are you serious?

-RM

To whom was that addressed? (You didn't quote anyone)

Although agitating, I feel as though If I complain everytime I have a late flight I will look like an overly complaining customer and therefore get blacklisted.

I have only complained a few times. Once because because a FA snagged my FC seat which you may remember was a major thread a few months ago and when a delay caused me to miss a transatlantic.