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#1
11-21-2004, 10:45 PM
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NWA can suck my balls
I know the airline industry is [censored] up, so maybe this is standard operating procedure, but this is the first time I have run into this BS, and I am pissed.
In August I booked a flight on Northwest to go home for thanksgiving, from San Diego to Minneapolis. My outgoing flight is Thurs morning and return flight is Sunday evening. On friday my teachers finally admitted that we don't have class on wednesday (the university has classes scheduled and teachers apparently are not supposed to cancel their classes but I guess they do anyways and just do not tell anyone until now...) So I'm like sweet, maybe now I can get a flight home thats actually before Thanksgiving day. So I call up Northwest and ask about changing my flight. The guy tells me that a flight on tuesday or wednesday is gonna run me about $1000. This is clearly not worth it so I say thanks anyways and hang up. I then go online and check out Sun Country Airlines website. I find a 1-way ticket on Tuesday for $167, what a sweet deal! Now I can just take that flight home and take my Northwest flight to get back to San Diego on sunday! So I call my parents to make sure they can pick me up at the airport on tuesday and my mom says it will work perfectly because she is going to be dropping my cousin off at the airport Tuesday anyways. Then my dad says I should call Northwest back to tell them of my new plans. So I call them and tell them I found a flight on a different airline but that I still want to take their flight back on Sunday, seems resonable enough to me. (Bitch from NWA in the most annoying voice ever...) "Umm, no sorry sir. If you do not show up for your outgoing flight on Thursday then your entire reservation will be cancelled and you will not be able to take your return flight on Sunday." WTF!?!?! What kind of crap are they trying to pull here. Its not like it hurts them any, not having me on the thurs. flight. It should actualy help them since they always overbook anyways. What is their freakin problem! So I am like fine, I want to cancel my Thursday flight right now, and just keep my sunday flight. "No sir, if you cancel one, you cancel both because it is a round trip." [censored] YOU WHORE! It is not. Its not like they sell the damn thing as a package. When you book a flight you get to pick the day/time you leave and the day/time you return. What the hell is their problem. So I'm like fine, I want to make the Sunday flight my outgoing flight and have my return flight be sometime in the future. "Sir, I know what you are trying to do, and I cannot allow you to make a reservation that you do not intend to show up for. That is illeagal. And besides, by changing your flight you will be subject to the current price for that Sunday flight: $955!" OMFG, this is unreal. Does anyone seriously pay prices in upwards of $1000 for a flight? I know I have never paid over like $400... So the moral of the story is...I hopefully will never fly with Northwest again. Sun Country makes so much more sense. Not only are they way cheaper, but they sell flights as 2 separate 1 way tickets, none of this "round trip" BS. In doing this they make it so you don't get totally [censored] when you try to change one of your flights or when you only want a 1 way ticket in the first place. I have looked for a 1 way ticket on Northwest before, and have found that they charge you more for a 1 way ticket than if you were to just book a "round trip" ticket on the same exact flight and simply not show up for your return flight. What a [censored] joke! OK, rant over. Thanks for listening guys [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] 
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#5
11-21-2004, 11:10 PM
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Re: NWA can suck my balls
[ QUOTE ]
"Sir, I know what you are trying to do, and I cannot allow you to make a reservation that you do not intend to show up for. That is illeagal. And besides, by changing your flight you will be subject to the current price for that Sunday flight: $955!" [/ QUOTE ] Its illegal to do that??? WTF? Who is gonna enforce that.....  and yeah i've never ever heard of anyone paying more than like $450 for a round trip flight in coach in the US before.
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#7
11-21-2004, 11:37 PM
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Re: NWA can suck my balls
NL,
A good way to find out if its the law or just NWA's policy, ask the person on the phone if you can speak to their supervisor. this has worked in the past for my friends and I when negotiating price/policies (not at airlines [We havn't tried there] but repeatedly at other places). Frequently the phone operator may not know any better, they may just have a script to read w/ given answers to most questions that could be asked. When they say things such as, "I can't do that" or "We don't do that" or "It's against policy" etc, ask for their supervisor, who has more authority and maybe the ability to change prices/policy if haggled enough. These statements can be like a bluff, saying things back such as, "Yes you can, I have done it here before" is like re-raising all-in, with none of the lost cash, b/c if they aren't lieing you don't lose anything, and if they are, you win. This may help you in the future
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#8
11-22-2004, 12:42 AM
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Re: NWA can suck my balls
This is the policy of all major carriers. Roundtrip tickets are priced at a certain level and sold as such. How far in advance you buy them, how many days you stay, whether you stay over Saturday night or not, these are all standard restrictions.
Business travellers often pay $1000+ for a midweek ticket for the same route that costs $200 to go Fri through Monday. You said you have never paid over $400 for a RT. One reason for that is because these restrictions exist which allow them to charge higher prices to travellers who need more flexibility in their plans.
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#9
11-22-2004, 12:54 AM
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Re: NWA can suck my balls
Is the policy you are talking about, the policy of cancelling you whole trip if you dont show up for the first half?
It seems so dumb that they screw over their frequent business travelers and give the good deals to the occasional vacationers or people who just fly a few times a year. I guess it just comes down to supply and demand but it still seems really dumb. Airlines like Sun Country seem to have fiugred things out. I would love to see the rise of more airlines like them and the fall of airlines like northwest. My dad was trying to explain to me just how the industry got so messed up with regulation and deregulation and whatever, I guess its been like this for a long time.
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#10
11-22-2004, 01:28 AM
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Re: NWA can suck my balls
Usually, when someone gets frustrated in a dispute like this, I tell them, "Hold on, now. Take a deep breath. And try to look at this from the other guy's perspective."
In this case, the other guy is the airline. Now, you call them up, and tell them, "I've bought a round-trip ticket, and my seat will be empty for the first leg. You have my permission to sell this seat to someone else, for all you can get for it." Now, they don't want to do this because....um.... I have no idea why they would have a problem with this.
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