Worst experience of my life...................

[El Jefe]

So tomorrow morning (1/18) I'm interviewing at UMich. I live in Los Angeles, and had a flight out of LAX at 2:20pm today on Northwest Airlines. I had ordered my ticket online (as I always do). I arrived at LAX 3 hours early just to make sure everything would go smoothly, and checked my luggage and got my boarding pass. Then when the time came to get on the airplane, I showed the attendant my boarding pass and ID. But, apparently I was supposed to have a "ticket" along with the boarding pass (a boarding pass had always been enough before for me). So they pulled me out of line and looked through my stuff checking for the ticket. They looked on their computers and saw that I was scheduled to be on the flight, and paid and everything, but I didn't have this ticket so I was not allowed on board. So I called my father and asked him if he knew anything about this, and sure enough some tickets had arrived back home unbeknownst to me. There was another flight leaving to Detroit at 3:50 (an hour and a half later), so I asked him to leave immediately to get them to me (he lives about 45 minutes from the airport). Just my luck, he gets stuck in traffic and arrives at the airport with my tickets at 4:15pm. So, I have to change my flight again to 10:20pm tonight. Now I'm scheduled to arrive in Detroit at 5:45am the day of my interview. My luggage got onto the first plane, so will get there about 7 hours before me. Lucky me, I get to go to my interview off of no sleep tonight, with no shower, and likely without a suit if I can't get a hold of my baggage tomorrow morning at 6. If only the guy at the counter when I originally checked in told me I needed a ticket, I could have gotten it before I even missed the first flight. Anyway, sorry if that was long; I just needed to vent. I highly recommend not flying Northwest Airlines in the future. Good luck to the rest of you.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

Jefe-

That's your own fault not Northwest's nor any other airline. I've had a similar situation occur to me, but luckily I could wait a few days and get everythgin straightened out before anything big happened. If you order tickets off the net you MUST make sure whether they are e-tickets or if paper tickets will be sent and to where.

As for luggage, just be damn glad that you will have it there when you arrive to town. I flew home over winter break and had my luggage sitting in St. Louis for five days. With absolutely no clothes where I was at, i had to go out and buy some.

I'm sorry about your situation, and good luck with the interview, but hopefully this will serve as a warning to others who are travelling. Also expect major delays for a few days while they screen all baggage now.

 

[jiffy boy]

That's your own fault not Northwest's nor any other airline. ••

Warren blah blah-

I think he understands that it was his own fault, but thanks for clarifying the situation for us.

PS - I hope Warren is not really your name.

 

[Scooby Doo]

I don't like Northwest either. I had a horrible experience with their person at the counter in another state. They pissed me off so much!

 

[SMW]

They wouldn't let me count my small backpack as a "personal item" and I had to unpack and repack right there at the ticket counter. I refused to check my garment bag with my suit in it, but couldn't stuff my toiletry kit into it, so had to check it and hope it arrived (it did).

I recommend arriving in a city the day before your interview (not the night before). This allows you time to get oriented, if all goes well, and if not, for the unexpected that might happen. And leaves you time for a good nights sleep no matter what happens. Hope your next interview trip goes better, Jefe. For laughs do a search for SauzyAsian's Vermont interview last year. It'll surely put you in a better humor.

 

[moo]

I too always thought a boarding pass was sufficient. On my last trip, when I was flying home from Chicago, I checked in at the United booth and told the agent that I lost my eticket and she just said that I didn't need it and gave me my boarding pass and I was through.

 

[kutastha]

<a href="http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=003449" target="_blank">It could be worse</a>

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

Northwest is more strict about their bags than the other airlines I found out this past month. However, just remember to follow each airlines rules and you shouldn't have a problem. If are use to the way things have been since 9/11 you have another surprise waiting for you at the airport today when all baggage must be screened including checked baggage. Thanks goodness I'm not flying anytime soon unless I have an interview invite on my way.

Sorry to sound so rude earlier, but you need to make sure of what you are doing when something as big as an itnerview is staring you down. Considering since I've been flying there have been only two times that my flights have gone without a hitch. (Considering I fly at least four times a year for the past four years). One was on Thanksgiving, and the other was over winterbreak this last year.

And for thsoe of you making fun of my name...it's my parents fault not mine. yes I can change it, but I think that's an injustice to those who brought me into this world.

 

[racergirl]

I think Warren is a cool name!

 

[pre-hawkdoc]

Warren P. Cheswick---awesome Ed reference. great character from a great show.

 

[Firebird]

Originally posted by jiffy boy:
•


PS - I hope Warren is not really your name.•••

I hope Jiffy is not really YOUR name...haha...

just kidding...

 

[Fixed Gear]

The only airline worse is ATA.

Feckless *****s. All of them.

 

[Tazdoc]

Jefe,

I cringe for you, ouch!

Two questions though:

(1) You say they saw that you had paid, are you telling me they could not have printed a duplicate ticket, not requiring your dad to bring them all the way from home?

(2) Could you not have called the school to explain the situation and reschedule the interview? I can't see how rescheduling (or rescheduling AND getting) another interview could be any worse than putting your "worst" foot forward by interviewing with no sleep etc.

Oh well, I really wish you the best (you're probably interviewing this very moment...)

Let us know how it turned out....

 

[mpp]

Originally posted by Tazdoc:
•You say they saw that you had paid, are you telling me they could not have printed a duplicate ticket, not requiring your dad to bring them all the way from home?•••

They can't print a duplicate ticket. An airplane ticket is a ticket, like a ticket to the movies. If you lose it, you are kind of screwed. What you can do (and I had to do it once when I lost a ticket) is file a lost ticket claim and then buy another ticket. When this happened to me once (it was more than 10 years ago) it took about 3 months for them to issue a refund on the lost ticket. But I flew on the scheduled flight because I had a purchased a new ticket. Its a screwy old-fashioned system but that is the way they do it. Hence the beauty of the electronic ticket...

 

[UCLA2000]

So the worst experience of your life is almost missing an interview? Quit complaining! You've had a happy life.

 

[SMW]

Originally posted by mpp:
•When this happened to me once (it was more than 10 years ago) it took about 3 months for them to issue a refund on the lost ticket. •••

That's actually pretty fast. When it happened to me, it took 6 months (!) to get my refund.

Folks, mpp is right about the rules on this (as he is on most everything ). So take his advice and go for e-tickets whenever possible.

 

[SMW]

I now love Northwest!!! <img src="graemlins/lovey.gif" border="0" alt="[Lovey]" /> I was having problems with getting from Rochester, NY to Vermont (see my post in the need travel advice thread). They wouldn't let me change my ticket over the phone, so I had to drive to the airport, where a really nice guy let me change the ticket to an open jaw (fly into Burlington, VT, fly out of Rochester, NY) with no change fee and an only slightly higher fare. Only catch is I have to stay over a Saturday, but since I have a friend in NYC who I can pop down to see on JetBlue, I'm not too upset about that.

 

[KING LEAR]

I like the name Warren.

 

[megkudos]

I live in Warren.

Oh I guess you guys were talking about something else...nevermind.

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

awwww...thanks guys for liking my name.

Warren P. Cheswick is a dork boy who plays on Ed, well that's the name of his character. In a lot of ways I"m like him, in a lot of ways I'm not. At least I don't have disaasterous dates.

 

[El Jefe]

I made it through with no sleep. The interviewers knew what happened and seemed sympathetic, so it went well. It was just rough staying awake in the early morning, but once the interviews started I snapped back to life.

It was more like the worst travel experience of my life, not the worst in my life in general.

 

[otter]

Personally I love Northwest (Some people KNOW how to fly!!!), as well as Alaska. I've never had a bad experience with them and their inflight meals are very good. On the other hand, United ticks me off sometimes.

 

[mpp]

Originally posted by Warren P. Cheswick:
•awwww...thanks guys for liking my name.

Warren P. Cheswick is a dork boy who plays on Ed, well that's the name of his character. •••

I thought it was a reference to Cheswick from
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

Nope it's from Ed, the only prime time TV show I watch.

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

By the way I love Northwest. Ever since one flight attendent tried to hook me upwith another flight attendent. I will always be grateful for that.