Northwest woes

Northwest is having yet another month-end surge in cancelled flights. Not surprisingly, this is leaving customers in the lurch and Northwest is doing next to nothing to help, even those it's their scheduling inabilities which are causing the problems.

There's a voluntary, market-driven solution to this. Many individuals have proposed a "Passenger's Bill of Rights" which has, rightfully, been shot down as an unwarranted intrusion into business which would unduly burden the airlines.
The solution to this is a voluntary "Passenger's Bill of Rights" that airlines can optionally choose to apply or not to their business. Each travel booking website and travel agent would be required to make clear what flights and what airline are following the "Passenger's Bill of Rights" and allow consumers to choose which airlines to utilize. If consumers are willing to pay more for airlines which follow the "Passenger's Bill of Rights", those flights and airlines will be available. If consumers are unwilling to pay more for those flights, airlines and flights would be available to them.

Another month-end surge in cancellations riles Northwest travelers
Detroit Free Press

Northwest Airlines' pattern of cancellations continued Sunday, with more than 200 flights dropped as pilots who were pushed to the limit of hours they are allowed to fly each month stayed home from work.

The airline blamed the pilots, who in turn blamed the airline for failing to address staff shortfalls after it canceled more than 2,000 flights in June, many of them toward the end of the month.

Passengers suffered again Sunday, especially at Detroit Metro Airport.

"It's their own internal problem but they just pass it on to you," said Joe Czarnecki, who was trying to fly to New York with his wife after attending a wedding in Detroit.

The Czarneckis learned through a voice mail that their flight home was canceled and that they were rescheduled on a flight today. Because that would force them to miss work, the couple bought two $500 tickets with Continental for a Sunday flight, only to find out that flight was grounded, too, because of bad weather in the East.

The couple said Northwest's customer service kept disconnecting them because of the high call volume.

"They give you a recording because they don't have any guts," Joe Czarnecki said.