Kudos to NWA

This time a good news story about NorthWest Airlines. Unfortunately it is second hand as it actually happened to a colleague today, not to me personally. Just before leaving for the airport she had checked the flight status and had discovered that the filght to which she was connecting had been cancelled. NWA had booked her on a later flight, but as luck would have it, she had a personal commitment and needed to get back earlier than the rebooked flight. She called NWA but the agent seemed not to be able to help her at all, even when my colleague offered to buy her own connection flight, but wanting to keep her return after the weekend.
She was not very happy on her way to the airport, and as soon as we arrived started working with the local check-in staff to see if they could arrange the non-cancellation of her return flight, if she travelled under her own steam from MSP to her home destination (you may have guessed, she travels on a reverse cycle, i.e. client-home-client).
After a few minutes of working on the computer the local ground staff, who know us quite well by now and who are always very friendly, gave her the good news that someone (who had to be the agent at the call center) had managed to find a different routing that would get her to her final destination just under an hour later than originally scheduled. Here is another example of someone applying good customer service by taking ownership of the customer's problem and finding a resolution. NorthWest, you may have your faults, but do your best to foster this sort of attitude in your staff; it will help you be successful.

I am afraid NWA had also earned an "soduk" , in addition to the above kudos, which concerns the recently changed boarding procedure on our flights from YWG. Although we have scanned our passports at the check-in terminal, and we have had our passports checked by the US Customs and Immigration at the pre-screening, NWA still insists on seeing our passport (or photo ID) before boarding because our flight is supposedly an international flight. Even though we have already passed customs, NWA does not see this as an domestic flight. Not a big deal, but it is a minor annoyance.

Flying Clear

One of the "perks" that I afforded myself, is a subscription to Clear, the pre-screened security lane, now at a number of major airports. The original start up was at my home base, MCO or Orlando International, and I signed up quit early on. This excellent facility means that I now know within a minute or two, how long it will take between arriving at the airport and arriving at the gate. As frequent travelers know, it is often not about how long something takes but how consistent it is, this allowing effective planning. Clear certainly gives me that consistency. It is unfortunate that it is not more widespread at airports around the country, of course at the moment, YWG (Winnipeg) is such a small airport that security is almost like a Clear lane anyway.
There are however some annoyances with this service, not the fault of Clear, but due to our dear friends at the TSA. Originally this service was intended as pre-screening that would enable the person to undergo a less rigorous screening once at the airport. Ideas such as no need to remove shoes, leaving the laptop in the case were floated, but other than the first (removing shoes), nothing really good had materialized. If you look at what Israeli security experts say, namely focus on finding the bad guys and not on finding bad stuff, you can see that TSA are not following that advice. I understand that they want to be sure that even a pre-screened person does not bring prohibited materials on board, but surely they could make better use of the fact that we have passed a background check to make their searches more effective. For example, if 'Clear'ed passengers could leave their laptops in their bags, they would pass through security that more quickly, leaving more time to spend on non-pre-screened persons. Or perhaps we would not need remove the ziploc bag with toiletries, etc.
In fact, a few months ago TSA went from bad to worse; namely, on arrival at the Clear lane, it is now necessary to show photo ID as well as the Clear card. Given that the latter is a bionmetric encoded card, with far superior security than most drivers licenses, it seems a rather stupid decision.
As mentioned above, in addition to the shorter line, there is one other small "perk" when I fly out of Orlando. The Clear machines also check my shoes for metal, and if there is none, and if I am not the "nth" Clear passenger, I can keep my shoes on (whoop-dee-do). I will not mention the number represented by "nth", for fear of alerting terrorists to state secrets, but it is a relatively low number.
Unfortunately, Clear does not use the "puffer" gates either. Once, leaving DCA (Washington DC), I participated in a trial of this device. Keep your coats, jackets and shoes on, just stand in the gate for a few seconds, while puffs of air are directed at you and then step right on through. It certainly beats taking everything off, putting it in a tray and then getting dressed again.
Hopefully TSA will review their procedures and change them so that flying Clear is not just an different kind of frequent traveler lane, but becomes a lane where travelers can be processed quickly and effectively.

Hi-tech hand dryer

During my recent, too long, layover at MSP, I saw an unusual hand dryer in
the restrooms at gates G11-G13. It is made by Dyson, yes of the hi-tech
vacuum cleaner fame. Instead of holding your hands under a narrow blower,
you put two hands into a slot, side by side. A wide blower starts on both
side of your hands and you withdraw them slowly, dry!
___
Sent from Treo 650
Email on the go!

Jinxed?

Recently my colleagues have started trying to avoid traveling with me, claiming that I am 'jinxed'. Over the last six weeks I have not had a trip (outward or home bound) that does not have at least one of the two segments delayed by some problem or other. Only a copule of cases have been weather either, most of them some kind of technical problems, or late arriving aircraft.

The reason that I decided to post something on this topic, is because I am sitting in the NWA Worldclub at MSP and have just found out that my flight home is delayed by 50 minutes (for now).

The annoying thing is that, because of ticket prices, I was on an earlier flight from Canada than normal. I have a planned 4 hour layover, but had hoped to make an earlier connection as standby. The connection time on that earlier flight is 25 minutes, too short to sell, but as I only have carry-on baggage I was hoping I might make it. The incoming flight to YWG was a little late, but the NW staff turned her around quickly and with the help of a tail wind, we arrived a couple of minutes early in MSP. I had cheked the gate number of the next flight while we taxied to the gate, so I new that I had 15 minutes to get to the next gate, before the normal 10 minute cutoff. In actual fact I arrived 11 minutes before the official departure time. To my surprise, no plane, not even one with a closed door! They must have left at least 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. So now I ended up with a 4 hour wait, which has just been lengthened by almost 25% :-((.

Jinx at play again?

Lost luggage woes

I will be upfront and say that Delta is my favorite US airline. I find that they have the best facilities for frequent travelers, they recognize their frequent travelers and they seem to be the best at handling things when they go wrong. Especially the latter is important, as we all know that in today's air travel problems occur more than we would all like.
Unfortunately, there is one area where Delta is not strong, at least in my personal experience, looking after your checked baggage. I normally travel with carry on baggage only, but a couple of months ago, on the return flight from the UK, I was forced to check in one bag because of security regulations. As I was flying via Atlanta to Canada (award travel, so not on a direct flight), I did not need to claim my bag at the first port of US entry as normal, but was told that it would be checked through. I had plenty of time for my connection in Atlanta, so did not expect any problems. Wrong!!!!
On arrival in Toronto, no bag, so off to the Delta luggage office, filed the claim and was told it was probably on the next flight (arriving around midnight) and that my bag would be sent on to the hotel immediately. Next morning I awoke, checked with the front desk, still no bag. Finally, when I got back from the office still in my traveling clothes, the bag had been delivered. I thought that it was just a glitch but.....
Last week my wife and daughter returned from a trip to Europe themselves. As their destination was in the US, they had to claim their bags in Atlanta, go through customs and then drop their checked bags for the next flight. This time Delta managed to lose the bags between customs and the flight home. Again, at the claim office they were promised delivery between 8 and 12 the following morning, if the bags arrived on a later flight. Next morning I checked the website and was pleased/disappointed to find that two out of three bags had been found and were indeed at the airport awaiting delivery. However, noon came and went, no bags. I ended up calling Delta and having the bags held at the airport, as I was scheduled to leave later that day and we did not want the delivery arriving while my wife was out at the airport. Next day the final bag turned up and was delivered. I think by that time my daughter had resigned herself to the loss of the clothes in the bag and had started thinking about the shopping spree to replace them. So the delivery was not actually as welcome as it might have been ;-).

But if anyone from Delta reads this, please train your agents to 'tell it like it is' and not to sugar coat things. It is bad enough for baggage to be lost, but setting the wrong expectations only makes things worse.

Getting the best seat

Most frequent travelers know well enough to either choose their seats at reservation time or to visit the airline's web-site to get those elusive "best" seats. If you travel the same airline often, you will know which seats are your favorites and not need any help. But if you have to use different airlines, or perhaps have a flight on an aircraft type that you do not normally use, finding the right seat can be difficult. But trust the Internet to provide a solution:

This site (click on graphic to view) shows seats on almost any airline, and lets you know which ones are best or worst (and why, so you can decide whether you agree or not). If you are interested they also provide information on other in-flight amenities, including, for those of you that make frequent long distance flights, in-seat power.

At least someone at UA understands customer service

Yesterday I used UA (United) to return from Winnipeg, due to lack of reasonably priced seats on my normal NW flight. After some recent problems on UA flights through ORD, I decided to try a connection via DEN.
Before leaving for the airport, I checked the incoming flight at FlightAware.com (see my earlier post about flight info). I noticed that the incoming flight was expected to arrive 30 minutes late. Given that I had a 40 minute connect time, I was pretty sure that I would have to be re-booked.
Unfortunately UA's own flight status showed only 15 minutes delay. This came back to bite me when I checked in at the airport, and tried to switch flights. "Don't worry, sir, the flight is just a few minutes late. They turn around quickly and catch up the rest on the flight to Denver!"
Yeah, right! Of course the flight arrived almost exactly as FlightAware had predicted. On top of that no-one at the airport seemed to have any urgency to get the flight out quickly. Net result, we arrive at the gate in Denver, and start deplaning at 20 minutes before departure of my connecting flight, which was showing on time departure. On top of that United sent me an alert message to say that they had booed on another flight, leaving Denver the next morning. Having no desire to stay the night in Denver and miss most of my Fridat traveling again, I decided to try for my original flight anyway.
So I took off like OJ through the concourse, hoping to get from one end of the B concourse to the other (a 10-15 minute run for those who do not know Denver airport) before they close the door. Not feeling too happy with UA, I managed to flag down a driver of one of the terminal golf carts and asked him to drive me as fast as possible to the gate.
And this is where the kudos come. Even without me asking, while driving in and out of the crowds as fast as he could, he called his dispatcher and asked her to call the gate and let them know that a connecting passenger was on their and to hold the door. She did that, and then brought back even better news. Boarding, which was supposed to have started 15 minutes earlier, was just about to start. And so I ended up not having to spend the night in Denver, thank goodness.
Unfortunately, due to the rush, I never got that driver's name. But if anyone from UA DEN reads this and recognizes him, give him a big bonus. It is this attitude of taking ownership of a customer problem and doing what he could, that will keep your airline going. This small gesture did not cost him much effort, it did not cost UA any money, but it showed me that he cared for me and my business. As a result, next time I cannot fly my chosen airline, United will be bac at the top of my list as an alternative.

Pre-Flight information

As I often have to take connecting flights to reach my destination, I like to be aware of any delays as soon as possible. One way to be forewarned, is to find out the flight number of the incoming flight and use a flight tracking site. This way you can see if that incoming flight has left the previous stop on time, and so judge whether it will arrive at you location on time. This of course has an impact on whether your flight will leave on time, or not. Unfortunately it is not the only factor, but it is an obvious one.

Prior to leaving the office, I like to use . This site even allows you to be informed when your chosen flight files a flight plan. For commercial flights this is normally a couple of hours prior to departure (but can but up to as little as 30 minutes prior).

Outside of the office I use my cellphone, with the Flight Status program from www.andrewsoft.net. This excellent program retrieves and displays key flight information, as well as linking to a flight tracker mapping site.

Delays and NW Flight Alerts

On the way home today, weather at MSP put the flight of my first leg into a holding pattern for 20 minutes. We had also left Winnipeg late due to late arrival of the incoming flight, so I was a little worried about making my connection. Normally I do not worry too much when delays are due to weather at the connecting airport, because delays arriving often mean delays in departures too.

But with Northwest I do not get an immediate update of flight status, as I do with Delta. The NW flight alert messages only come once, and do not inform you of delays. In contrast, the Delta messages, following the initial flight notification, are sent as soon as delays occur. In fact, they sometimes arrive before the delay appears on the monitor screens or is announced by the gate staff. Any change of 10 minutes or more in the last communicated time, is followed by another message. So you always know where you stand, or wait :-).

With Northwest the lack of delay messages means that, instead of getting the information I need as soon as I turn on my phone after landing, I have to access the NWA web-site and look up the information. Only then will I know whether to sprint off the plane or not. Another annoying feature of the NW flight alerts is that they do not tell you from which gate the flight is departing. Instead you are told at which gate the flight will arrive at the other end. Who cares :-/.

Of course I can get all this information as soon as I deplane, assuming I can find a bank of monitors near the gate and hopefully on the way to the next gate. Or stand in line and wait for the gate agent to look on their list. I prefer to know as much as possible before deplaning, information is power!

On this trip, trying to look up the next flight status at NWA.com, I found that the bookmark for my phone's browser was now pointing to an incorrect page. Thanks NW for that change. By the time I had managed to find and navigate to the right page, we were at the gate and deplaning.

P.S. my connecting flight was indeed delayed, just enough so that as I walked up to the gate the baording process started. So I will not be shortening my weekend with an unscheduled overnight stay in Minneapolis.
___
Sent from Treo 650
Email on the go!

Part of the fun of blogging is being able to post as things happen, so this is a test of posting from my phone
Stefan

Cell phone roaming in Canada

One of my pet peeves are the exorbitant costs that the cell phone companies charge when you roam from the US to Canada. I use T-mobile, but I hear the same complaint from colleagues who use Cingular. For voice I end up paying $.59 a minute.

Worse are the data charges! On the face of it, .10 per Kb does not seem much, until I notice that my monthly usage in the US is 20-40MB, on a $20 unlimited data plan. But when roaming, this would result in a $200-400 monthly data charge.

In this day and age, when international travel occurs so easily, and internet and long-distance connections on landlines are so cheap, does it really cost that much for the companies to provide roaming. Or are we frequent travelers being milked as cash cows to pay for all those "free" minutes that other less traveled subscribers get?

Stefan

CanPass Air - fast immigration processing

On my weekly trips to Canada, I have recently been able to use the CanPass Air customs clearance system. This uses biometric information, iris scan, to determine my identity, then after I answer whether I have any items to declare, allows me to bypass the usual immigration lines and go straight to the customs exit. Especially when I am sitting at the back of the plane, this system is a real boon.

There is a system called Nexus, which works both ways, i.e. into the US as well as Canada, but I travel through Winnipeg and they do not have Nexus yet.

Orlando Airport Cabs

Came home for the weekend, and due to delay on my connecting flight did not arrive at MCO until after 1 a.m. So instead of being collected by my wife, I took a cab home. Having learned by previous experience I always ask for a Mears cab at the taxi stand (Checker or Yellow). With other cab companies, I have found that the meter amount is not as consistent, but worse, when I try to pay by credit card it always seem to be a problem; they complain about surcharge, or cannot find their slips, or have to call it in. The latter is especially annoying at 2 a.m. when I am anxious to get to bed and it takes another 10 minutes of messing around.

The Mears cabs have an automated system, so they just swipe your card and then get the authorization through their wireless despatching system. They even print the signature slip and receipt right there for you.