[Ricki]

This is our first time buying NW tickets. We were travelling around Tokyo area. The thing is, no body told us that there is a check-in time limit while obviously other airlines don't have.

We were not familiar with Tokyo's traffic and was at the check-in gate around 5:05pm,while our flight time was 6pm. We were not allowed to go to the check-in counter because there is a 60 minutes' check-in time limit for NW customers,which we didn't know! We were just late for 5 minutes and we have a young child with us! We also had our seats reserved before the flight, which were 43ABC! If Northwest's Customers First service exists, this wouldn't have happened!

What is worse, your staff(Omri) just came to tell us lies such as we didn't reserve our seats, and the gate was already closed(I noticed the gate closes at 5:45) and so on. She just turned back and we were left there without knowing what to do! I hoped at least your staff would help us to fly back the next flight. However, when finally reached your your staff through a public phone, she didn't express any sympathy and cruelly told us we only can go back on March 6, which was 2 weeks from our scheduled date! We were left there helplessly just like that! Tired and with a young child to comfort, we had to find any other airline that went to Shanghai that day. Do you know how much we paid for one way ticket? 50% more we bought for NW's round trip!!! We have to pay US$2100 just for the reason we didn't know there was a check-in time limit!!! This is the most absurd thing that ever had happened to us! If Northwest staffs have had just a little bit sympathy, they wouldn't have done this to us and our 6-year-old daughter! I don't think any other airlines would have done this to us. Actually, I had an experience that ANA waited for us and treated us as customers should be.

We have flied so many times and these are the only two times we didn't arrive the airport 2 hours before our flights. Yet how differently you treated customers!

We wrote to NWA customer service and they refused to refund our extra paid money.

This is our last time to fly Northwest Airlines. We have never seen such a poorly managed airline company and hope we could have read the complaints here before our reservation! Obviously there are lots of unlucky and illy treated passengers of Nortwest Airline all around the world!

[rudybjr]

You were late! The computer locks out a flight 1 hr from its departure and if you were "only 5 minutes" late, you were still late. Don't blame them for you not knowing the rules.

[Gromit801]

Almost every airline I have flown has a check in cut off. It's anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the airport.

[mars6423]

its not NW fault, they have to close check in an hour before and in many cases its for legal issues and/or passanger comfort

if there wasnt a cut-off than people would try to catch a flight 20mins before it takes off and it would create delays, frustrated customers, annoyed staff (both airport and the airline) and it is alot more hastle than you think

They have to get your bags on the flight, they may be randomly searched, and if there is a problem than they need to allow a little time to fix it or it can delay the flight for a period of time, while other flyers are sitting due to someone checking in late.

If you didnt know that there was a cut off time than you should have read the details when you booked the flight and reserved the seats as many airlines will say it on their website and/or ticket. Also it is almost common knowledge that there is a cutoff time

The employee should have and could have been more helpfull but its your responsibility to get to the check in desk ontime....also if you call the airline desk ahead of time they could help you and are more understanding......i was driving my mom to the airport to go to Singapore on Singapore Airlines and we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for hours and we left with plenty of time, we would have arrived at the airport 3hours before the cutoff but we knew she was going to miss the flight so we called Singapore Airlines and they changed her flight to 3 days later since all the other flights were full due to the time of year

[jimworcs]

Mars...don't really disagree with much of what you say, except two things... one is that it is "common knowledge".. the point about common knowledge and common sense is that they are not that common. Secondly, the cut off times are set by the airline, there are no "legal" reasons for the cut off. The airline is legally obligated to make sure that all the appropriate screening and processing is done, but there are no "legal" standards relating to cut off times. It is entirely at the discretion of the airline and airport.

[mars6423]

I have been in some (at least one) airport not in the US where there were signs and in fine print it sayed that there is a governed cut off period for check in

[jimworcs]

Where was that? I have never encountered it, but it might be useful to know where it is

[mars6423]

I believe it may have been Madiera (portugese island) but i am not 100% sure, i just remember seeing the sign and thought thats funny so i was going along the lines that more airports may use the same theory if they were nationally owned and had to follow that nations aviation rules