Paradigm Shifted

Dear Northwest Airlines,

You lost a good customer today. I have flown you for years, both domestically and internationally. I fly your partners (Delta and Continental) several times a year. But today, you pushed me over the line, and will now end up in the discard pile, like American Airlines did, so many years ago.

I will admit that I’ve never liked you. Ours has been a relationship of convenience mostly (much like the one I have with E*Trade). Your hub is Detroit, and my family is there. So, because you offer the cheapest flight to see my family, I suck it up and fly you. In addition, you offer good deals to India, so when I need to go there, I’ll take Northwest as well.

But no more. Today, you revealed your true colors, and the well of my disappointment knows no bottom.

I have some sympathy for factors (weather) that are out of your control. I understand that when the fog rolls in, your planes can’t land or depart. But no other airline would roll over and give up like you did – cancelling the flight a full hour before departure. No other airline would open ONE counter for rebooking customers, and offer a “hotline” that puts you on hold for 20 minutes. No other airlines would rub it in their customers’ faces by proceeding to depart other flights to other locations right under our noses. And most importantly, no other airline would go to such extremes to be as UNaccomodating as possible.

I should have known better than to expect anything else from you. But I’m a sucker who gives people a million chances to do right. But I watched as you sent one couple on the road to divorce (they’ve had 3 flights cancelled in 2 days, even after giving you the option to fly to so many different destinations, just to get to Madison). I watched an older couple try to explain in broken English why they needed to make it home to Korea at a certain time. And I listened as you told me that you would rather fly with empty first class seats (holding out to the last minute to see if you can sucker some fool into paying an additional $400 for that seat because he wants to be home for Xmas) than upgrade me.

Enough. The truth is, our domestic carriers are terrible. US-based carriers may have records for safety, but they certainly have none for customer service. Some of of the discount carriers are marginally better, but anyone who’s flown a foreign carrier knows what I’m talking about. If I could fly Cathay Pacific from DC to Detroit, I would.

So, tomorrow (and Tuesday) will be my last flight on Northwest. Never again, unless I have no other choice.

Next time, I’m taking the train.