Amazing how the entire country can be shut down by water falling from the sky.
Left Indianapolis yesterday….almost 4 hours late, entirely due to what the airport drones so whimsically described as “multiple weather-related delays at several airports, and cascading staffing problems as a result.”
Wedged into miniscule “regional jet” for flight to KC, where we were offered the chance to pay 5 bucks for a bag of pretzels.
All in all, I’d have to say that Northwest Airlines is crappier than a Taco Bell toilet.
My NWA flight in to GenCon was practically flawless. And they have a large 78 gate terminal at our stop-over in Detroit, complete with train. I was thinking … these NWA guys are switched on.
Then I tried to get home Sunday. Both planes were haunted by luggage problems and hour+ delays (and nothing fills you with “Will-my-luggage arrive?” trepidation like hearing that they had to remove “cargo” before take-off).
Then, upon landing in Buffalo, a small but efficiently busy airport that I’ve never had any trouble with … we got to wait an hour and a half before our luggage was unloaded, all the while non-NWA passengers streamed down to baggage, waited five minutes, collected luggage, and departed.
Needless to say, my opinion of NWA isn’t so comlimentary anymore.
Doug.
Northwest Airlines is crappier than a Taco Bell toilet.
I declare this to be written truth of the highest order.
cascading staffing
Ya know, the “cascading” that we’ve had up here for the last few days does NOT make this a pleasant mental image.
Glad you made it home safely, and sorry about the crap that is modern air travel!
Yeah, our flights out of Indy and Chicago were also both delayed by the weather, with the Indy flight providing the added joy of spending most of the delay time on the plane itself, waiting to push back from the gate. Ya-freakin’-hoo.
Gooood Evening GM!
God can truly and in the most literal sense *damn* Northwest Airlines to hell and back again. They’re the most rude, inconsiderate, and blatantly uncaring bunch of @#$&ers I’ve ever had to deal with.
Our little experience was when my mother was coming up to visit me last year. Northwest ended up leaving her and a whole plane full of passengers stranded at the Detroit airport overnight because they didn’t bother to let anyone on board know that a gate had been changed, until they landed and AFTER all the people went the gate they thought they were supposed to be at, and it was still another 10 minutes waiting for someone to meander over to rudely tell these people that the gate was at the other end of the hall and why didn’t they know that. She also said to not bother going over there as that flight was already departing. The bitch then left in the middle of everyone asking her wtf. My mother had to yell at the woman to hand out at least food vouchers as Northwest wasn’t about to do shit about anything else regarding that awful situation. It was too late to check into hotels, so yeah. Everyone literally had to sleep in the terminal. The airline was blatantly unapologetic and on top of everything else, lost at least my mother’s luggage when she finally arrived. They had to drive it out that night.
It was just unbelievable. I’m sorry you had to deal with them as well…
I got caught in the t-storm crush heading out of Indy through Chicago back to KS as well. I ended up being only an hour late landing though, so I was pleased with that. However, the layover in Chi was approximately 6 seconds long and so I had no chance to eat.
Trust me, I would have paid the $5 for the bag of pretzels on the flight. (but I refused to pay $6.99 for a crappy pre-made ham and cheese sandwich in the airport! LOL)
Laz.
Never fly Northworst! Every time I fly them I am sorry.
The secret
The government is preparing for the end of peak oil by making air travel undesirable. The plan is to make travel by bus or train look better by comparison so they can shut down a few of the by far too numerous airline companies.
Right now American is on my shit list based on a terrible experience earlier this summer and not so great experience getting to GenCon. After we boarded in Dallas, the plane delayed pushing back from the gate while they reviewed a “mechanical” problem. Said mechanical problem being cleared shortly after four late passengers boarded. Only, at this point, a front from TS Erin had moved in, and we got to sit on the taxiway during the lightning. We actually left Dallas 20 minutes before our scheduled arrival in Indy.
Taco Bell toilet? Ewwwwwwww . . .