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Northwest Airlines Ticketing Snafus

Northwest Airlines • Ticketing snafus • Luggage lost, stolen, destroyed • General hostility • Disgruntled Employees • Northwest vs. KLM • Pray for food --- News • Delta, Northwest Merger Faces Heavy Chop • Troubled Northwest Strikes New Deal With Pilots • A Seething Summer of Discontent for Northwest Airlines • Northwest Passengers Face Uncertain Summer • Pilot Shortages Plague Northwest Passengers • Machinists Pact May Head Off Northwest Airline Strike • Northwest Hopes to Cancel Employee Contracts • Delta, Northwest File for Bankruptcy • Northwest Flying Despite Strike • Northwest Warns Of Bankruptcy • Strike Looms At Northwest • Northwest Seeks Replacement Flight Attendants • Northwest Pushes Up Fares

I gave Hawaiian Airlines the information provided me on March 25, 2003, over the phone from the Northwest Airline Agent, and they couldn't locate my ticket, or any information at all related to my upgrade. I had my fiance from the mainland get on the phone (as Northwest puts you on hold for VERY long timeframes & I was on a cell phone) to try to resolve this issue for me. They couldn't locate my reservation, initially, at all. They could not even look up my record of travel with them on March 4, by my name! They said they needed the credit card I used to book the flight. Well, I booked through Expedia.com, so they had no record of this transaction, but I FLEW with them, and later they took my credit card for the upgrade -- so, where's a record of my conversation?

I'm stuck in Hawaii, with a ticket I paid over $900 for, without any record of my transaction. How convenient for Northwest. Now, I am fighting to get back on the plane home. My fiance spent 5 hours on the phone last night just trying to get someone to understand what I had been told, and how they made the error on their end. At 11pm, she finally gave up, and was told to call Customer Relations in the morning. Frustrated, and tired, what else could she do?

I KNOW that Southest Airlines would not have treated us in this fashion - at all. Where are the phone records of conversations made over the phone when he called in March, and gave them the credit card number and authorization to bill? How is it that Expedia.com knows about this change (it's even in their system, although the changes were made through NWA)? How is it that NWA can claim "well, we never charged your card, so your ticket is void?" Who gave them permission to void my ticket? I certainly did NOT. I gave them authorization to bill me, and because they dropped the ball, I have no way to return to my home. They need to be held accountable for their actions!

Luquan of Metuchen NJ (5/3/03):
My husband and I have bought the ticket to go to Beijing, China on June 30, 2003. Because of the breakout of SARS, we decided not to go this year. When we called to cancel the tickets, we were told by the local agency and the Northwest airline that we CANNOT cancel the tickets, but only change the date. We were told that we could change to any date before December 15, 2003.

According to CDC's warning and the dangerous situation in Beijing, we don't want to go to China this year. We want to cancel the tickets or change the date for next summer because one of us is working in school and summer is the only vacation time for us to travel overseas for more that two weeks. We explained our difficult situation to Northwest and our local agency several times, the local travel agency cannot cancel the tickets if Northwest Airline doesn't agree to cancel.

Northwest Airline Rep. told us that they couldn't refund our tickets because we didn't buy the tickets from Northwest Airline directly. The local travel agency told us that they couldn't refund us if Northwest doesn't change the policy. We told them that we would like to accept the penalty, but they all insist that the tickets are non-refundable.

We spent $1,830 on the airfare. We want to cancel our airline tickets to China and we want some amount of refund from the Northwest Airline Company. As we know, all the Asian Airline companies refunded the tickets they sold out, even the "non-refundable" ones due to the emergency situation. Ironically, most of the American airline companies, such as Northwest, United Airline, which have more flights to Asia, don't want to refund the tickets to all customers.

These companies ignore our rights as customers! We just don't want to go to Beijing, China in this summer. We don't want to risk our lives! Nobody knows how long this epidemic disease will spread around in Asian countries. The United States Government tries to prevent this epidemic disease to come to US. If American Airline companies continue to ignore the danger of SARS, soon or later the break out of SARS will happen in United States.

Lori of San Jose CA (1/20/03):
I was not able to make a return flight that I had booked via the Orbitz Travel website. I called the Orbitz Customer Care phone number twenty (20) minutes prior to the flight take-off time (4:00 PM) in order to re-book a flight. My intent was to use the last half of the roundtrip ticket that I had purchased. I spoke with Neal, a Customer Care Representative. I explained to him my situation and asked him what I options I would have. Neal, the Orbitz Travel Customer Care Representative was incredibly helpful and patient in assisting me. He listened to my concerns, provided information, and made a few suggestions.

After I communicated to Neal that I would like to take a Monday morning flight, Neal proceeded to complete the ticketing process. I was put on hold while a “hold” was issued against my check card. Neal then spoke with me about my seat assignments. I was a bit confused and taken aback when Neal called at 4:47 PM to tell me that it wasn't until 4:02 PM that we had decided to re-book the flight. At that time (4:02 PM) it was too late to re-book using the existing ticket because the ticket in my possession had no value.

Neal explained that most airlines would allow you to re-book a ticket up to midnight on the night of flight, except for Northwest Airlines. He explained that I/we should have contacted Northwest Airlines to see if they could do something for me. Neal stated that he had called Northwest Airlines, but that he had no luck in getting the ticket that I thought we had booked. Lastly, Neal told me that I needed to call Northwest Airlines 6 hours prior to a ticket change. He then told me that it was 4:03 PM when the ticketing was completed.

Neal was helpful in trying to get the hold removed from the card that I was using to purchase the new ticket. He called me back ~ 30 minutes later to explain that the hold would not be removed until midnight the following night. After calling an airline directly and purchasing a ticket, I began to think about the sequence of events and became a little confused. I was sure that I had decided on a flight prior to the 4:00 PM take off time/deadline. With this in mind, I decided to call the bank to determine when the hold at been placed on the card. The representative that I spoke to informed me that the hold had been placed at 4:00 PM.

The difference in minutes resulted in an additional cost and some inconvenience for me, including: the value of one-half of the ticket that I purchased via Orbitz, one-half of the Orbitz processing fee, and the cost of a new ticket). The hold of $105.00 was not removed from my account until more than 24 hrs later, denying me access to funds.

Carolyn of San Francisco writes:
On October 21, 1999 I flew from Surabaya, Indonesia to Greensboro, N. C.. The ticket I purchased was for Business Class all the way. When I got to Narita, Japan they had overbooked Business Class and I had to fly from Narita to Detroit in Economy Class.

At the Northwest counter in Narita I completed a refund voucher to be reimbursed for the difference. On December 7th after many calls not being able to get thru, I faxed a copy of the refund voucher to the number given on their voice mail. As of today I have not received my refund nor can anyone tell me the amount of the refund. After numerous telephone calls and e-mails I have not been able to get this resolved.

Joan of Sewell, NJ, writes:
Purchased 2 round trip tickets to Italy in March for $1,017.09 each, for travel in July. The reservationist told me that if a lower fare became available before our travel date, we would be eligible for the lower fare.

On June 8, I exchanged these tickets for a lower priced fare of $689.11 each, at which time the Northwest Airlines Philadelphia ticket counter issued me a "refund application" on my Visa card. My Visa card company says that this is not a "credit" and therefore they cannot help me!

I have faxed Northwest Refund Department with copies and have not received a response. Getting through on the telephone is impossible.

My Visa card was charged $2,034.18. I have a "refund application" of $655.96 which I am waiting to be credited to my account by Northwest.

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