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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Northwestern Airlines ·
August 4th, 2008
Trains seem to be the way to go
salamndstron
August 5th, 2008
It seems as though domestic flight and terminal service has continued to drop for the past 6 years or more. Some, but not all of the international flights appear to have maintained a certain level of decent service.
Airline Reviews
October 17th, 2008
Its “Northwest” not “Northwestern” - geez!
you are supposedly a professional travel writer? I won’t be buying your book - just read it for free from the local library.
Jack Miller
November 22nd, 2008
There’s no such airline as Northwestern
dorothy
December 21st, 2008