Don’t Go There!

Don’t go to Northwest Airlines…

Birmingham International Airport Annual Report had a surprise for its faithful readers on page 19 concerning airport security. There is a graphic of a suitcase under X-ray, and…well…there was obviously a MAJOR BREAKDOWN in the airport administrative office. There is something in this suitcase that really doesn’t belong on the pages of any annual report.

Can you imagine this being presented to board members and shareholders, up on a big screen? Oops.

The worst part is, it actually looks like there might be a bomb in the top part of the bag. Maybe that’s the point! Don’t let an unexpected surprise distract you from the real dangers!!!!

For more on this visit www.bestweekever.tv

Peter’s new book, Don’t Go There: The Travel Detective’s Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World, goes on sale in stores on Nov. 11, 2008.

To promote his latest book, Peter is heading out on a book tour around the country. Find out if he’ll be speaking and signing copies in your city …

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Peter Greenberg talking about his upcoming book tour.  Find out if he’ll be speaking and signing copies in your city.

After enduring a tirade of verbal abuse that included an airline employee accusing a plane-load of us passengers of “lollygagging” (when in fact it was their plane that was late in the first place), I didn’t think my last (and I mean LAST) trip on Northwestern Airlines from Detroit to Newark could get any less pleasant. I was wrong.

After being delayed at the airport we then had to wait over an hour on the plane - hot, humid, sticky, summer heat with seemingly no functioning climate control in the cabin - while Northwestern replaced a computer component in the cockpit. Apparently they’d already inconvenienced us so much that they figured it couldn’t hurt to go the whole hog and effectively hold us hostage in the functional equivalent of a tropical climate, while at the same time letting us stew in our own apprehension about being on a broken plane in the first place.

While I spent the hour wondering who actually still uses the word “lollygagging”, my ride back in NJ was discovering that due to scheduling mishaps and broken airplanes 2 hours of her day were going missing, too.

Sure, these things happen. No airline is perfect. But the incompetence and unpleasantness of Northwestern’s staff is almost unparalleled (Southwestern, appropriately, does a good job competing). Not only did they not care that we, the paying customers, were put out, but they had the gall to give us attitude at every stage, from baggage check to getting pretzels on the plane. I’d been on Northwestern to the other side of the world (literally) and had no complaints, but going from Detroit to Jersey was a whole other
ballgame.

Even their prices weren’t competitive (they were overpriced). From what I’ve heard the airline has only gone downhill. Forget it, don’t bother flying Northwestern. I know I’m not.

Written by: Dina

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