It’s not an emotional thing.

If you’ve ever flown on an airplane you know how emotional of an experience it can be. From booking the ticket to landing at the destination the whole experience is one giant emotional roller coaster. To use a simple word, it’s stresfull. Here are some of the questions that go through my mind:

1. Did I get the best fare?
2. Did I pack enough/too much clothes?
3. Will they charge me to check a bag?
4. How long will the security line be?
5. Will my belt buckle set off the metal detector?
6. Will the flight take off on time?
7. Who’s going to sit next to me?
8. Will the flight land safe?

There’s dozens more, but those are some of the major ones. I think you can see what I mean when I say: stressful.

Well, as many of you know this has been a stressful week for me. Getting carbon monoxide poisoning and ending up in a hyperbaric chamber kinda does that to you.

I was due to fly out of Pittsburgh, PA on Northwest Airlines flight 1921 on Saturday March 21, 2009 and return to Pittsburgh on Northwest flight 3272 on March 22, 2009.

But, after the insanity of this week, all I wanted to do was get home as soon as possible. I was in Chicago on business Tuesday through Friday morning. Rather than fly back to Pittsburgh on Friday and then fly back across the country to Minneapolis on Saturday, I simply booked a Southwest Airlines ticket from Chicago to Minneapolis on Friday. That put me back together with the family 1 day earlier. And I tell you, after nearly dying, there ain’t nothing like family to make you feel alive.

Tonight, I tried to check in for my flight online at NWA.com. I received an error message and it wouldn’t let me check in. I called the Northwest Airlines customer service number, made my way through 5 minutes of automated prompts, and finally ended up with a human being. I explained my problem and he quickly diagnosed.

Northwest Airlines canceled my ticket for Sunday because I didn’t take the Saturday flight out to Pittsburgh. This was news to me. I’ve changed flights dozens of times; especially when on business and I’ve never run into this problem. I asked what that meant and he responded that they could reinstate my ticket for a penalty fee of $150.00 and the price difference between the old ticket and new ticket. By new ticket, I mean literally the SAME ticket I already had, but they canceled.

I sought a higher power and asked to speak with someone else. Surely, this must be a mistake, right? I was transfered to, Michael, a supervisor. From the get go he was cold. I re-explained my situation and he said amongst other things

it’s not an emotional thing.

He pointed out that had I read the full terms and conditions before booking the flight I would have known that this would happen. Gee, thanks for making me feel even dumber. As he put it, “we’re in the business of selling tickets.” That was in response to my questioning why they canceled my flight. See, Northwest assumed that since I didn’t take the first leg of my trip I wouldn’t be taking the 2nd leg. They wanted to sell my ticket at a much higher cost. In doing so they’ve sold the seat twice.

I was amazed…stupefied really. Michael explained to me that the rules are the rules, I should have known better, and it wasn’t his fault I took a different flight out. Wow. He even prodded me to go into details about why I changed my ticket. I explained to him the carbon monoxide situation and he that’s when he said, well “it’s not an emotional thing.” The conversation went back and forth for about 20 minutes. During that time I even flat out asked him do you think this is right? He fell back on the old rules are rules bit. He was condescending, argumentative, and cold as ice.

Before hanging up the phone I asked him 3 things:

1. Since I didn’t agree to any terms on the call about recording the conversation was he ok with me posting the call to my blog? This freaked him out and he explained I had no legal right to do so. I have no idea if he’s right. Until I find out, I won’t be posting it.
2. Are you sure there is nothing in your power or someone else’s to fix this problem without forcing me (I believe I indicated they had a gun to my head and I had no choice) to pay? His response, was “I didn’t say that, you are putting words in my mouth.” Wow.
3. Can you please mail or email a copy of the terms and conditions? He declined and said I should look on Expedia.com (where I booked the tickets) for that information.

As you can imagine, I was a little more than hot under the collar. I couldn’t get over the rudeness, lack of civility, and coldness exhibited by Northwest and their “customer service” staff. I looked on twitter to see if Northwest had a presence. I was hoping to correspond with someone else before writing this post, but as you’d imagine I didn’t find anything.

To be clear, yes the rules are the rules.  Yes, I should have printed them, read them, and I guess followed them explicitly.  But, I also believe there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

When you compare this experience to my experiences with Southwest it’s no wonder Southwest continues to thrive will Northwest struggles to maintain it’s existence. Now that Southwest is flying to Minneapolis, you can be sure all my future flights from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis will be on Southwest…even though I’d have to connect in Chicago. Yes, that’s right. I’m giving up direct flights for connecting ones. The difference in customer service is just staggering.

Southwest thanks for coming to the Twin Cities; it’s nice to have an alternative.