Congratulations NWA
The recent J.D. Power customer survey ranking Northwest Airlines (NWA) as dead last isn’t too surprising. Doing as much business at MSP as they do, it’s hard to find good flights on other airlines when traveling from MN. For many Minnesotans Norwest has become the company that everyone loves to hate. Being slow to jump on bandwagons (metaphorically speaking – I’ve actually never traveled by bandwagon), I was slow to jump into the fight. But my recent travel whirlwind has left me armed with new information on how NWA stacks up to its competition.
Trying to save the company a buck (Your Welcome), I never end up flying direct anywhere. In the past three weeks, I’ve been in seven (7) different airports, and traveled on three different carriers: NWA, Frontier, and US Airways. Comparing airlines, I can see why NWA ranks so low.
Unlike NWA, both Frontier and US Airways offer snacks – OK – only chips or pretzels – but snacks nonetheless. In addition, both Frontier and US Airways offered movies and in-flight TV. You had to pay extra to hear the movie, but believe me; – Wild Hogs is just as good without dialog – probably better.
So overall the in-flight experience was superior on the non-NWA airlines. Post flight, I had the chance to mingle with some NWA staff and learned a great deal about those handling our bags. None of it inspired confidence.
Arriving late in the afternoon at MSP, the main Lindbergh terminal parking ramps were full. I parked in the Humphrey Terminal ramps instead, and took the shuttle over to Lindbergh. On the way home, I boarded the Humphrey shuttle about 11:30 p.m. with 6 or so NWA baggage handlers and one NWA pilot. Apparently NWA employees park at Humphrey as well. The baggage folks started to de-brief, sharing (loudly) with colleagues about the past 8 hours. Seems one of their colleagues had failed the drug test and had been terminated. What amazed them was that no one could believe that this particular person was the sort to do drugs. The baggage handlers on the shuttle thought of themselves as the partying sort, and had never pegged this guy as the druggie type. No one said anything about their own particular habits, but I almost wanted to distribute little cups to everyone of them and have them submit samples. Throughout this, the pilot looked very uncomfortable; I think he even winced one time. Overall, these guys were not the best ambassadors for NWA.
Trying to save the company a buck (Your Welcome), I never end up flying direct anywhere. In the past three weeks, I’ve been in seven (7) different airports, and traveled on three different carriers: NWA, Frontier, and US Airways. Comparing airlines, I can see why NWA ranks so low.
Unlike NWA, both Frontier and US Airways offer snacks – OK – only chips or pretzels – but snacks nonetheless. In addition, both Frontier and US Airways offered movies and in-flight TV. You had to pay extra to hear the movie, but believe me; – Wild Hogs is just as good without dialog – probably better.
So overall the in-flight experience was superior on the non-NWA airlines. Post flight, I had the chance to mingle with some NWA staff and learned a great deal about those handling our bags. None of it inspired confidence.
Arriving late in the afternoon at MSP, the main Lindbergh terminal parking ramps were full. I parked in the Humphrey Terminal ramps instead, and took the shuttle over to Lindbergh. On the way home, I boarded the Humphrey shuttle about 11:30 p.m. with 6 or so NWA baggage handlers and one NWA pilot. Apparently NWA employees park at Humphrey as well. The baggage folks started to de-brief, sharing (loudly) with colleagues about the past 8 hours. Seems one of their colleagues had failed the drug test and had been terminated. What amazed them was that no one could believe that this particular person was the sort to do drugs. The baggage handlers on the shuttle thought of themselves as the partying sort, and had never pegged this guy as the druggie type. No one said anything about their own particular habits, but I almost wanted to distribute little cups to everyone of them and have them submit samples. Throughout this, the pilot looked very uncomfortable; I think he even winced one time. Overall, these guys were not the best ambassadors for NWA.
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