[pattsi]

15 Dec 2009--twice this week, I have tried to reach NWA via the 800.225.2525 phone number. No one ever answered. The message announced a wait of 15 minutes. When I sent a message via the web site, I was told that agents are being trained so the staffing is shorted. This does not seem to be the manner to gain and keep customer loyalty. I appears to me that customer service has gone totally down hill since the merger to the point of being non existent.

Have other had similar problems?

[jimworcs]

The NWA agents are having to be trained to be rude, snarky and unhelpful, so that they can become Delta agents. Some of them don't know how to lie convincingly to their customers... so there is a lot of training to be done.

[PHXFlyer]

I just called...took about 90 seconds from first connecting with their VRU to being transferred to a live person. Don't know what your issue was. It is the holiday travel season so perhaps they were just busy when you called? Or were you just inept at navigating their prompts?

[pattsi]

I have noticed PHX that almost all of your responses support the airlines. So I am supposing that you work for thus. Your reponses are usually deprecating, in addition. No, I am not inept in going through a phone tree. No, I am not inept in using the web site. Again this morning when I dialed the 800 number, the line was busy. Could not even get to the phone tree. The merger has made a mess of NWA, in particular if one leg of the trip is on Delta, but the second leg is on a flight controlled still by NWA. The NWA web site for check is is not user friendly. If one checks in and then later decides to check luggage, one can not do so without calling online help to ask that the seat assignment be cancelled, which in turn cancels the check in, and then one has to go back in, try for another seat, and then one can check luggage. There are no cues on the web site that this is the procedure, which is just plain insane.

[pattsi]

As a P.S. to my response to PHX--I also sent a complaint to DOT. This complaint was in turn sent to NW customer service. The result was an immediate reply from NWA and correction of seat assignment. What a shame that it took such a major complaint to get some help from the airlines.