What sort of air traveller are you?

I don't generally have that option. Only a few airlines serve Spokane, and schedules are such that there are seldom two good choices. Usually, to get a decent connection there's only one combination of airlines to get to a specific destination. But even when I am within the same alliance they lose my luggage more often than when I manage to fly one single airline all the way (except NW, as noted below).

Northworst is the only airline to have lost my luggage when I was 1.5 hours early for a flight of a single leg. They've also lost my luggage on a two-leg flight where both legs were NW and there was plenty of time for the connection, and I had arrived an hour and a half before departure time.

 

i prefer direct flights because they're more convenient and it's less easy to lose the luggage.

 

I am an inpatient air traveler. My time is important. How early I arrive at the airport depends on who I am flying with.

 

Daniel, did you complain to the airline? Complaints are public record and airlines are all ranked by on time, luggage handling, and customer complaints. When they receive a complaint remedies WILL be taken. All luggage is scanned as it's being loaded, at the belt loader, if it's being loaded on the wrong flight they are alerted. This is a requirement for all international flights with a $10,000 fine PER BAG for any violation. NWA scans every bag on domestic flights as well (since 9/11), this has them at the top of the industry, I'm sure you can Google it, it's public record.
One point that's overlooked quite often, place identification on both the outside and inside of each bag, include mailing address, phone number and email. If a bag is lost, it cannot be returned unless they can get hold of the owner.
One other thing, when did you have your troubles with Northwest? There was a period during the mid to late 80's, during the Checci fiasco where they had major problems. My major traveling has been in the last 12 years and it's a very different airline then their old reputation.
One other thing it's Northwest, not northworst, you nearly always post intelligent and well thought out things. The name calling is more the style of Berman, you know you are above all that. As far as choices from GEG, they are served by Skyteam, but that would require you to swallow your pride and ride on a Red Tail.

 

That's an option I give up by my choice to live in a smaller city. If I lived in L.A. or Houston, etc., I'd be able to fly direct to more places. But I'd go mad living in those kinds of cities.

Yes, I complained. They don't give a rat's a$$. My troubles with Northworst were clustered around the period from 2001 to 2006, which is the period I lived in Fargo. Before 1995 I lived in rural ND and never traveled (couldn't afford to in those days) and between 1995 and 2001 I was out of the country.

I think enough people have experienced misdirected luggage to give the lie to your assertion about tag scanning. Indeed, the tags have the necessary information, and should be scanned, but clearly the system does not work. I've even heard a rumor that airlines will sometimes intentionally bump luggage to make room for higher-paying freight. Of course the sociopaths at Northworst don't care that you may have essential equipment in your luggage and that a day or two of your vacation turns into idle thumb-twiddling because without it you cannot participate in the activities for which you were traveling.

Or as happened to me: Northworst canceled my flight because it and the next one had few enough passengers that they could be combined. Then they re-scheduled me, but only part-way to my destination, so that I'd have been left in the middle of my trip on standby, with little chance of arriving in time to participate in the tour I had booked. (And my trip insurance didn't cover it because it was a discretionary choice by Northworst, not anything unavoidable.)

Or when Northworst made an error in my mother's ticket. She was 85 years old at the time, and half a dozen ticket agents refused to help her as she stood in as many lines for a total of 5 hours!!! When one agent finally took pity on her she learned that any of those agents could have fixed her ticket. They just didn't want to. Not only are Northworst executives sociopaths, but the Northworst agents are sociopaths as well.

I don't know what's meant by Red Tail. Is that an informal term for Northworst? Fortunately, I don't think Northworst has any exclusive routes from here. And it has nothing to do with pride. I just don't go in for masochism. One of the advantages of living here is that I no longer have to fly on the worst and most sociopathic airline in all of North America. (I am willing to concede that Russia or Uganda might have a worse airline.)

From your replies I wonder if maybe you work for Northworst. If so, none of the above is directed at you. I am sure that, as a Prius enthusiast, you are the exception. The worst of companies must have one decent and honest employee, and if you do work for them I am sure you are that one.

Peace to you, my friend. And may Northworst go bankrupt and their routes be taken over by an airline not run by criminals.

 

Daniel, I need to respond. I do computer work for Northwest and several other airlines, so yes I'm quite learned on the internal operations there. As for the baggage scanning, I know it's done because I put it there, and get daily updates on its usage and performance statistics. For specifics, the scanner (Psion model 7530) in hubs (MSP, MEM, DTW, NRT & AMS) are linked real time via 802.11 protocol, for spoke stations, luggage data is uploaded to the scanner via a direct link (place scanner in a cradle and press the button), prior to loading luggage, so the scanner knows what bags are to be on the flight. Some very small airports scan the bags in the bag room before loading the cart, this is when there is only one flight on the ground at a time. There is an exception in the case of a late check in, but then the customer is asked to sign a waver at the ticket counter.
Canceling flights due to light loads is pure fiction, though a very common rumor. First, it's a violation of FAA rules, second routing is quite complex. Take for example a given airplane is scheduled to fly from from MSP, to FAR, remain overnight in FAR, then back to MSP the next day, then to DTW, DCA, MEM, and possibly MKE. If they were to cancel the flight from FAR to MSP because there were too few passengers, what would they use for the rest of the flights? There would be no airplane, and no airline keeps huge livery's of spare airplanes when they cost $40 million and up (mostly up). That plane will be flown empty if necessary on any give leg to preserve the route, that would still be less costly than paying off sever hundred passengers. NWA (or any other reputable airline) will cancel in a heartbeat any flight that there may be a problem that could cause the plane to go down on route, no pilot takes a chance like.
My "red tail" reference is indeed a term used for NWA. As I understand it came from several Asian airline pilots during the early post WWII era when Northwest was the only connection between Asia and North America, given by the trademark red tail. As far a service to GEG, I know there is NWA from MSP and Alaska/Horizon to SEA (I think), also NWA code share partner. I'm not sure but you may have Delta to SLC (in the process of merging with NWA), Delta is also Sky team, I'm not sure about American (One world alliance) or United (Star alliance).
As far as taking your comments personal, I realize they were not directed at me and never took any offense, but thank you for your concern, it's very much appreciated.
Well it's getting late and the alarm clock will have no mercy, but I will most enjoy continuing this conversation, take care my friend

 

I will not dispute with you the hardware in place. All I know is the number of times I arrive at my destination and my bags do not. Yes, they turn up later. Usually the next day. And it happens more often with NW than with other airlines, though none has a stellar reputation. I've spoken to people whose bags never turned up.

To clarify the canceled flight: I was to have gone to Scotland for a hiking trip. My flight out of Fargo was the first of the morning. The previous night's flight was cancelled. NW gave the reason as "pilot rest," when that flight was delayed into Minneapolis due to weather.

Yes, flight crews cannot be allowed to work past the fatigue point. But in its hub city, NW could EASILY have put on a fresh flight crew. It chose not to, clearly because it could put its evening passengers on the next morning's flight and its morning passengers on a later flight.

Then, instead of re-booking me through to Scotland, the ticket agent booked me only to Detroit, but without telling me that!!!!!!!!! I had to study the cryptic print-out very carefully before I realized that it only took me as far as Detroit, at a time of year when flights to Europe are typically over-booked!!! The S.O.B. was going to dump me in Detroit, without a continuing reservation, and no hope of arriving on time.

Technically, they didn't cancel to save on flights. Technically it was because the flight crew had to rest. But in fact, they could have flown that flight with a fresh crew, but they just didn't want to! No other flights were affected because the plane that should have come to Fargo and taken me to Mpls remained in Mpls. It missed its Mpls-Fargo and Fargo-Mpls runs, but was available for its next flight out of Mpls.

Because "pilot rest" is not covered in the trip insurance, I lost several thousand dollars. And why should the insurance company cover a loss which is due to the airline's discretionary choice not to put a fresh crew on the plane??? Northworst does not give a rat's a$$ about its passengers.

And what happened to my mother has no excuse. Half a dozen ticket agents chose not to fix her ticket because it just would have been too much work for them, and they lied to her, saying they could not, when in fact they could have.

From Spokane I can fly to Portland, Seattle, SLC, Phoenix, Denver, and I think San Diego. There was a flight to L.A. once a day, but they took the jet off that route and put on a prop plane (Horizon). Maybe Chicago. Not sure. I cannot even fly direct to Houston, a convenient jumping-off point, since it is Continental's hub. But of course, I've made the choice to live in a smaller city. All I really ask is that my flight not be canceled except for safety reasons, and that my bags arrive with me unless I arrive too late at the airport. My personal experience is that airlines care more about profits than about their commitment to their passengers, and NW is, in this respect, the worst airline in North America.