Northwest Airlines

I had an amazing occurence with NWA yesterday and I felt I should share with all of you since, afterall, this blog is all about what happens to me, and also because I am sure we have all had bad experiences with airlines in the past and this positive one may help us all get bpast those trying times.

Last night, my sister-in-law flew from a small airport in New York to Detroit. From Detroit she was supposed to go on to Florida with a 3 hour layover at Metro. My wife and I decided we were going to pick her up and go out for a bit so we could see her before she had to board her next flight and go home.

As we picked her up, however, we noticed something wasn't right. She was very pale and she was shaking and she said she felt sick. We thought she was just shivering from the cold, bu we soon learned she really wasn't doing well. Thinking it wasn't a great idea for her to fly again last night, we made a few phone calls and decided we would try to get her on a flight this morning rather than have her fly when she wasn't feeling well.

So, I contacted NWA by phone (800-225-2525) and explained to the woman on the phone our situation. She explained, that because my sister-in-law was already checked in, we would have to talk to a ticket agent in the airport. I explained to the woman that what she told me made sense and I thnaked her and hung up the phone.

We proceeded to the airport and the place was fairly empty. I went up to the line and we were shown to counter #48, Edie's counter (pronounced like the ice cream). I explained to Edie our situation and she told me that we were advised on the phone that we would have to purchase a new ticket for one way from DTW to FLL for this morning. I calmly questioned her since the women on the phone said we may be able to get her on a flight by way of exception. Edie took another look and realized the note said the worst case scenario would be to buy a new ticket, but not that we would for sure have to. Within 30 seconds she issued a boarding pass for this mornings light at 9:10 and we were on our way back to Oak Park.

In short, I was impressed at how the airlines was so nice and courteous and how they helped us so quickly. After all, my sister-in-law was already checked in for last nights flight and went to the conter 5 minutes before they were starting to board. The only thing I thought was wierd or that I questioned, was they never checked her ID. All I showed the woman was the boarding pass for last night's flight and she used the information from there to issue the new pass. What if we had found that boarding pass in the baggage claim area and someone else was looking for it to get on their next flight to Florida? We could have simply picked up a free one way to the land of the sun. Of course that wasn't the case, and all is well.

Till next time all.
Peace