All I see on the local news in Detroit lately is how poor the airlines are doing and how many flights are being canceled. In particular, Northwest has become the whipping boy for the local news affiliates. For the most part, they are correct. Too many flights are canceled, too much luggage is lost. I’d like to balance it a bit with a recent personal experience.
I had a business flight to Chicago recently. For the return flight, the plane was a few minutes late arriving at O’Hare, nothing critical. We were all boarded and buckled in in record time. I was in first class, so I got to see the commotion up front. Minutes later, the pilot announced that there was a hydraulic leak and we would have to deplane while they fixed it, a process taking no longer than 30 minutes.
We all grumbled, but deplaned quickly, happy that we weren’t being held hostage on the plane. Making our way to the NW World Club , we saw a flight attendant telling us to turn around and re-board. I’ve already pre-boarded; now I get to re-board. Next I suppose is e-board.
This is where I was impressed with Northwest. So far this sounds like a very poor flight experience, but they really turned it around for everyone. We were each given three coupons:
- US$10 or an in-flight drink
- 1,000 World Perks Bonus Miles (or Air France)
- $25 off the next flight
Any one of those would have been nice. Getting all three? Outstanding. Thank you, Northwest. Confidence restored.
