Ridiculous Airline Customer Service Issues

By Jenni Hammitt

July 21, 2009

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At about 3:20 A.M. an e-mail came through on my Blackberry. I didn’t think much about it because the flight isn’t until September and flights change. Once I woke up and had a chance to look at the actual e-mail, I was a little more disturbed.

We were confirmed on a flight from Indianapolis to Las Vegas with a stop over in Minneapolis. Apparently that flight doesn’t exist any more. Okay, that is fine, but apparently Northwest thought it was a good idea to re route us to Detroit, give us less than an hour to get to our connection to Minneapolis. Then they gave us less than a half an hour to catch our connection to Las Vegas.

I just about hit the roof. Okay, if there were no other available flights from Indy to Minneapolis, and they had to send us to Detroit you can’t tell me there are not direct flights from Detroit to Las Vegas. Detroit is a Northwest hub…there had to be one available flight theoretically.

I was annoyed. Okay folks, if you are booked on an airline and they change your flight information and it no longer works for you, usually the airline will let you change to another flight at no extra charge. If you booked directly with the airline, call them ASAP and see what your options are. Now if you booked with a travel agent or an online travel agent, you need to contact them.

Now this is the one time I will break my own: Never resolve something by phone rule. I will 9 times out of 10 tell people they need to contact the company directly by letter and e-mail. Having a paper trail is an amazing thing. This is a situation where a phone call is needed. It is a time sensitive thing and you can always as ask for the rep to e-mail you confirmation before you get off the phone. That way there is still a paper trail.

Here is the deal though, no matter if you are calling or writing there is one major rule: Be Nice to the Customer Service Rep. Keep the drama out of it, and just stick to the facts. Be direct, tell them your concerns, but don’t be a major pain.

I called the online agency, and after a very brief time on hold, was able to speak to rep. I told her that I received notification about my flight change. I told her I was a little concerned because we had 2 connections now. I also let her know I understood if that was our only option, but the less than 30 minute layover made me nervous. She agreed that the 30 minute layover was not a good idea, and she was surprised about the additional layover. I was patient, made sure to thank her for her help, and within 30 minutes had the three of us moved to another flight to Vegas with just the one connection in Minneapolis. We have to leave a little earlier, but I feel much better about the one connection and ample time between flights.

Yes I could have ranted about what idiot did this etc., but that would just have made the whole situation drag out longer and possibly made the rep less apt to help me.

Be patient, direct and even if you are ready to punch someone, always take the drama out of the situation. State your case, but purely stick to the facts, refrain from making lofty demands (like in my case demanding free airfare would have been crazy, but others have done so), and escalate the complaint as needed. This will get you much farther in the long run.

View Comments for “Ridiculous Airline Customer Service Issues”

Airfare says:
August 3, 2009 at 11:40 am

It sounds like you handled this aggravating situation well. An earlier flight from Indianapolis is probably a good thing, anyways, since earlier flights are less likely to be delayed.

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