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Northwest Airlines Complaint - Impossible to contact via phone - Automated customer service
Automated customer service - Complaint
Just wanted to share my displeasure with NWA. We are flying out of town today, my wife, our daughter (under 2 years old) and myself. We have 3 seats reserved since we wanted our daughter to have more room for the long flight.
Long story short, I wanted to make sure we had 3 seats together. Logged on to and tried to reserve the seats last night. It showed a few groups of 3 seats available at the time.
It would not let me. It kept assigning us random seats all over the plane. So I decide to call NWA and see what was going on. I can't talk to anyone. They were experiencing high call volume and told me to try again later. Fine. It was the evening so I thought I would try this morning.
So this morning comes, I log in to the website. All the seats are now gone. I can't change them. My 15 month old daughter is now seated alone in the back of the plane. Nice. They know she is under 2 since we had to specify it at the time of reservations.
Anyway, back to my complaint. I try to call NWA again. This time I get through and get their automated response system. It takes me through a series of hoops where it makes me talk to the computer, and the computer tries very hard to understand me by repeating it back 5 times. Each time it messes something else up and starts all over. Finally the computer gets my information correct, and then tells me they are having system problems and they will connect me to an operator. Great! That is all I wanted to begin with.
A few seconds go by, I get a message that they are experiencing high volume of calls and cannot take my call at this time. It hangs up on me.
I spent 20 minutes battling the automated system for them to tell me they can't help me. Nice.
Hopefully we can get at least two seats together when we check in at the airport. Otherwise I'm going to leave a bottle with the flight attendant and tell her good luck. ;-)
Long story short, I wanted to make sure we had 3 seats together. Logged on to and tried to reserve the seats last night. It showed a few groups of 3 seats available at the time.
It would not let me. It kept assigning us random seats all over the plane. So I decide to call NWA and see what was going on. I can't talk to anyone. They were experiencing high call volume and told me to try again later. Fine. It was the evening so I thought I would try this morning.
So this morning comes, I log in to the website. All the seats are now gone. I can't change them. My 15 month old daughter is now seated alone in the back of the plane. Nice. They know she is under 2 since we had to specify it at the time of reservations.
Anyway, back to my complaint. I try to call NWA again. This time I get through and get their automated response system. It takes me through a series of hoops where it makes me talk to the computer, and the computer tries very hard to understand me by repeating it back 5 times. Each time it messes something else up and starts all over. Finally the computer gets my information correct, and then tells me they are having system problems and they will connect me to an operator. Great! That is all I wanted to begin with.
A few seconds go by, I get a message that they are experiencing high volume of calls and cannot take my call at this time. It hangs up on me.
I spent 20 minutes battling the automated system for them to tell me they can't help me. Nice.
Hopefully we can get at least two seats together when we check in at the airport. Otherwise I'm going to leave a bottle with the flight attendant and tell her good luck. ;-)
Comments:
Posted by BEJ on 2009-12-22:
Ask your fellow passengers and I am certain someone will change to allow all of you to sit together.
Posted by Ben There on 2009-12-22:
Most airlines have extremely long hold times because so many flights were cancelled because of the recent storms, and this is one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.
As for the seats, Northwest allows you to assign seats months in advance. Why did you wait till now? Lots of people are traveling in groups this week.
As for the seats, Northwest allows you to assign seats months in advance. Why did you wait till now? Lots of people are traveling in groups this week.
Posted by VF-213 on 2009-12-22:
Delta airlines receives over 500k web visits alone everyday so you can imagine how many phone inquiries there are. Ops are still not back to restored so I'm not surprised they are hard to get a hold of.
Posted by Sparticus on 2009-12-22:
Yeah we figured we could swap seats once we get on the plane. Most folks probably don't want to sit next to a toddler with no parent. ;-)
We did make this reservation in August. We had to call and give our daughters info since she was so young. Didn't think it was possible they would separate an infant from the parents. I had tried last week to check the seats. The flight was not taking seat reservations yet. Too early. So I remembered to check last night.
But I'm fine with all that. What annoyed me was how their phone system wastes your time trying to collect all this information repeating it over and over and then it just hangs up and says try again later. At least let me wait in a queue. Don't just hang up on me. Or tell me up front before wasting 20 minutes of my life in your crappy voice recognition system. I felt like they were keeping me on the line simply to be a test candidate for their buggy system.
We did make this reservation in August. We had to call and give our daughters info since she was so young. Didn't think it was possible they would separate an infant from the parents. I had tried last week to check the seats. The flight was not taking seat reservations yet. Too early. So I remembered to check last night.
But I'm fine with all that. What annoyed me was how their phone system wastes your time trying to collect all this information repeating it over and over and then it just hangs up and says try again later. At least let me wait in a queue. Don't just hang up on me. Or tell me up front before wasting 20 minutes of my life in your crappy voice recognition system. I felt like they were keeping me on the line simply to be a test candidate for their buggy system.
Posted by raven2002 on 2009-12-22:
I wish airlines would handle high volumes of calls the way T-mobile and Time Warner handles them. You get a recording saying long wait times and offering to call you back when it is your turn. You dont lose your place in line; their system just automatically calls you as though you had stayed n hold that entire time.
I also agree seating is down right silly, especially when they KNOW you are traveling with toddler. their system should be smart enough to find at least two seats together automatically.
I also agree seating is down right silly, especially when they KNOW you are traveling with toddler. their system should be smart enough to find at least two seats together automatically.
Posted by littleyaya on 2009-12-22:
I have friends who work for US Airways and they are making the employees work mandatory overtime. My friend worked 16 hours the other day. At one point, she said the calls on hold reached 1,000. SO, it's a busy time of year with the holidays and the weather. Just gotta be patient with all the airlines. They are doing the best they can
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