This past Golden Week, I had the privilege of going back to Hawaii for the first time since I graduated high school. (MoHS c/o '96 baby!!!) On the night of April 26th, I, the gf and her mother sat at Kansai Airport, looking forward to a week of bliss in paradise. Our Northwest Airlines flight was scheduled to leave at 9 PM, and we boarded the plane about 30 minutes prior to that.
About 15 minutes before 9 PM, with our seat belts fastened and everything secured, the captain made an announcement that there was a problem with one of the hydraulic systems, and there would be a two-hour delay while they fixed it. While we were shocked, surprisingly, most of the passengers took it well. Maybe they just wanted the problem fixed so that they could get to Paradise safely.
Back at the gate, everyone waited patiently for two hours. However, 11 PM came and went, and still nothing had happened. The crowd was starting to get restless. Then about 11:30, an attendent made an announcement that the flight was further delayed and would not leave until 12 noon the next day! At that time, all hell broke loose. Passengers rushed to find any Northwest Airline employee in the area and blasted them with their complaints. "You need to call my hotel and let them know I'll be late!" one lady said. Another passenger shouted, "What about my rental car?!?" Not a good situation at all. But Northwest did offer to put us up in a hotel for the night. After waiting an hour in line to get our hotel voucher, they took us all the way to a fancy hotel in Namba, farther away from the airport than my house is. We tried to put the night's events behind us and get a good night's sleep.
The next morning, we woke up to find a fax under the door that said that the plane was delayed
even more, this time until
5 PM! The excuse was that if we left at 12 noon, when we got to Honolulu, customs would be closed. But didn't they realize that the night before? Then we wouldn't have had to wake up early. Anyway, the plane did finally leave at 5 PM. However, that wasn't the last of the problems with Northwest:
- My gf's mother asked the flight attendant for an extra blanket, obviously in Japanese. The flight attendant responded in English with a blunt "No more!" as she hurriedly went away.
- They shouldn't have wasted money installing the attendant call light on that 747, because it was of no use. Whenever I turned it on, no attendants came by to see what I wanted.
- The jack for my headphones was broken.
- The tray for my seat was broken.
- My gf's seat was broken; it wouldn't stay reclined.
- My gf caught the attention of a flight attendant. He acknowledged her, but then he never came by.
All of that, and Northwest had the nerve to print a "Customer First" philosophy in their in-flight magazine. Customer First this, Northwest!
Of course, the irony in all of this is that, with the dollar-discount vouchers they gave us to make up for the delay, we are going to use Northwest again in the future and pay them more money. You think they're being nice by giving us a voucher, but it's probably best to just not use them again. But, then again... it's a discount voucher! Oh well.
