Northwest Airlines - pay for tickets, then pay for seats

My daughter and bought tickets on Northwest flights. Now I'm trying to get seats assigned, but there are no FREE seats! After paying for the tickets, the only way to get assigned seats so that my daughter and I can sit together is to pay $15 per person per flight. For the round trip, that's 4 legs x 2 or $120.

That's quite a racket they've got. And this is from an airline that just emerged from bankruptcy. You'd think they'd be trying harder to garner customer loyalty. I'll definitely keep this in mind next time I book a flight.

Phredd

Re: NWA - pay for tickets, then pay for seats

I expected to see something about a reunion tour of the former Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E group! LOL

Re: NWA - pay for tickets, then pay for seats

Banshee said:

I expected to see something about a reunion tour of the former Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E group! LOL

Click to expand...

Same here, but Easy E died years ago.

Re: NWA - pay for tickets, then pay for seats

They also charge $25 to fly standby.

I can't find a parking spot at the airport but they contend that people are not flying at the level they once did. Something has the olfactory essence of botulism laced piscis.

After 9-11 when the airlines opened back up NWA was begging us to fly. I had to fly to Minneapolis so I called them up. The price of the ticket jumped from $400 to $1200 for coach. Other trips on other airlines after 9-11 did not have such a drastic price increase. That plus the fact they are the only airline that has routinely lost my luggage. I'd almost pay the fee to insure that my bags make it at the same time I do. :nana:

I changed the title so there won't be any more confusion.

Pellidon, a fee to guarantee no lost luggage would be interesting, but I'm sure it would cause a furor too -- kind of like paying "protection." It's ironic how the airline personnel will complain about the current class of fliers compared to good old regulated days, yet they're the cause of the reaction by treating people so badly.

Phredd

hey it costs money to run an airline especially when your not transporting kilos of coke or flying without repairing big holes in your fuselage...any longer...

Thats why I fly Southwest; and thankfully southwest flies to or very close to everywhere I generally need to go. You know the Southwest employees generally still give actual service to their customers and on top of that they usualy do it with a smile . Very few airlines do that nowadays.

But anyway, yea, that is quite the system they have there at Northwest.
Nothing like milking you for every last dollar!

Are you saying that when you buy a ticket, you get a seat on that flight, but it is "unassigned", as in open seating or something? And that to get a specific seat you must pay $15 more to reserve it for you? I've never heard of this, it sounds like a scam. If that's how it works, couldn't you and your daughter just get there early and grab 2 adjacent seats when you board?

Lightmeup said:

Are you saying that when you buy a ticket, you get a seat on that flight, but it is "unassigned", as in open seating or something? And that to get a specific seat you must pay $15 more to reserve it for you? I've never heard of this, it sounds like a scam. If that's how it works, couldn't you and your daughter just get there early and grab 2 adjacent seats when you board?

Click to expand...

No don't think that's what was meant - basically a lot of airlines are charging 'extra' to pre-book the seats. If you do not pre-book they will assign seats to you when you get to the airport but of course they may not be next to each other.

Getting to the check-in early would probably give you a better chance but it depends how many people have pre-booked etc.

Re: NWA - pay for tickets, then pay for seats

Same here.. as a HUGE Dre and Easy fan... You really can't see "NWA" and think anything else

(Especially with the new "My 6-4" song out now)

Banshee said:

I expected to see something about a reunion tour of the former Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E group! LOL

Click to expand...

Yes, you will get a seat, but you can't get an assigned seat. I called and spoke to a supervisor and he told me there are still seats available even though they show occupied. When I asked why we couldn't get two of those seats so that we could be guaranteed to sit together he said that's the Northwest policy. I asked if there was a reason for the policy and he said there's no explanation just as there's no explanation why a stop light is red. I'm totally serious. This guy was unbelievable!

Phredd

Sometimes it's just better to treat some airlines like the neighbor's trash and leave them alone when they are not nice.

Very fortunately, we still have some good choices left, thanks to some airlines smarter business strategies.