The Traveler's Nightmare Scenario

"I'm sorry, sir, but we couldn't hold the plane for you."

Those words echoed through my mind as I trudged towards the hotel shuttle. It was 10:00pm on a Sunday night and, instead of being 35,000 feet in the air on my way to Sacramento I was trying to find out where to catch the shuttle to the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis.

Let me back up a bit. It was Sunday, January 11, 2009. Weather was bad, and system delays were predicted. As usual, my routing to Sacramento had me doing Detroit-Columbus, OH-Minneapolis-Sacramento. My problem was that I would have less than 40 minutes to make my connection in Columbus. So when a delay for my Detroit-Columbus leg was announced, I immediately went to a service desk and asked for assistance. They rebooked me on a direct flight to Minneapolis which would arrive in the same concourse (a big deal in Minneapolis) with 80 minutes to make my connection. No sweat, I thought, as I sat back in the lounge waiting to go.

I boarded this new flight to Minneapolis and, much to my horror, discovered that they were going to hold the plane for about 8 passengers who were coming into Detroit. By this time the snow was coming down, which meant that a trip to the de-icing pad was guaranteed. Because they held the plane, they also decided to perform some maintenance task instead of doing it in Minneapolis.

We were exactly 80 minutes delayed in leaving Detroit. When we landed in Minneapolis, they had announced that many of us would be stuck there and that there were amenity coupons waiting on tables for us just outside the gate. As I charged off the plane I asked whether the Sacramento flight had left, and they told me it was still there - only three gates away. I ran to F6 (we arrived at F14), only to find the gate agent closing up for the night. She profusely apologized, and said that the decision to not hold the plane came from the Operations department, which it does. So I went back to F14, found an amenity pack already waiting for me (!), and made my way to the hotel shuttle.

The worst part that night was trying to get a hold of my client in Sacramento and explaining the situation to them. Thankfully, that part turned out just fine as they had someone to cover for me until noon on Monday, when I arrived. Later, I turned my "attention" towards the airline, and wrote them the following note:

We were delayed over an hour leaving Detroit due to optional maintenance, which could have been performed in Minneapolis after we arrived. I know this because the ground crew discussed this with the flight crew right in front of me. While sitting in Detroit, we also waited for misconnects to meet our flight. Unfortunately that same courtesy was not extended to us in MSP, when the outbound NW399 to SMF was not held for me, and it pushed back about 3 minutes before I arrived at gate F6. The gate agent at F6 told me she was not allowed to hold the flight, even though there were about 5 or 6 of us going on to SMF. As a result I will miss a critical 8:00am start time at the office tomorrow.

Moreover, I got onto NW1461 when my original routing (DTW-CMH, CMH-MSP) looked like it would misconnect when a crew delay was announced for NW3562. Because I am a self-employed trainer/facilitator, I stand to lose $500 or more in income for missing my 8:00am start time for something, in my opinion, was preventable by NWA. Not long ago, I read in the in-flight magazine that NWA would reduce the number of misconnects by holding the last flight by up to 20 minutes to mitigate weather delays. Having gone through de-icing in DTW, I think that qualifies. The MSP-SMF flight (NW399) could easily have been held for 10 minutes.

The next morning I made my way back to the airport. Once inside the airport my suitcase caught on an escalator and ripped open. Fortunately it wasn't so bad that everything spilled, but I will need to replace it sometime soon. I used my meal vouchers to have a fantastic breakfast consisting of a bowl of handmade granola and a blackened walleye fillet served over scrambled eggs and toast. If I find myself back in Minneapolis around breakfast-time, I just might plan on having that again.
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The flight to Sacramento was uneventful. After landing, I retrieved my car and got to the office by about 11:45am. After the initial pleasantries and profuse apologies on my part, I got to work.

Two days later, I received an e-mail reply from Northwest Airlines:

Dear Mr. Haddad,

RE: Case Number *******

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the service provided while traveling with us to Sacramento. On behalf of everyone at Northwest Airlines, I sincerely apologize for the delay of our flight.

I understand the frustration you experienced when your plans were disrupted as we accommodated other passengers. I realize this was particularly concerning as you had a connecting flight in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I am truly sorry your travel was adversely affected and you did not arrive in time for your morning business appointment.

Additionally, I recognize the inconvenience caused when your connecting flight was not held. Please know that any decision to hold a flight for connecting passengers is made on a case-by-case basis by Northwest operational employees located in the control tower. Employees at the gate are responsible for an on-time departure and are unable to override directives from our operations group. While I recognize that our policy seems to have been applied inconsistently, please understand, there are various factors that may, from time to time, lead our operations group to make a business-necessitated exception. I offer the above information only as an explanation and certainly do not mean to minimize the impact our decision had on you in any way. With that said, your comments are well made and I will be sharing them with the responsible leadership team. I apologize that your recent travel was unsatisfactory.

Mr. Haddad, while I can not replace the lost work time, in appreciation of your Gold Elite status, and as a sincere gesture of apology for the delay of our flight, I have added 15,000 WorldPerks bonus miles. Please allow three business days for the miles to appear in your account.

As a WorldPerks Gold Elite member, you are an integral part of our customer base and we are always interested in your feedback. Thank you for taking the time to write concerning your flight to Sacramento. We deeply value your business.

Sincerely,

Marsha Schalk
Associate, Customer Care
Northwest/KLM/Delta Air Lines

Moral of the story: Complain nicely by stating the facts to the right people and something beneficial may come of it.