Northwest Airlines

On January 28, 2007 I surrendered my seat on an overbooked flight going out of Lansing, Michigan. In return, I received an Electronic Transportation Credit Voucher which is good for “one free coach roundtrip ticket in W-class”—for the 48 states. Residing in Central Wisconsin, I do not have many choices for airlines at the Central Wisconsin Airport, and Northwest is one of 3 carriers. I have also been a longstanding Northwest Airlines customer, selecting this as my primary carrier and typically travel 6-8 times a year, either for business or personal reasons.

On Friday, May 4, 2007, my grandmother passed away in Newport, Vermont. I called Northwest Airlines at 9:30 p.m. that evening and spoke with a female customer service rep. The rep informed me that Northwest would only honor my voucher for $250.00. Moreover, I could not take a rather ‘steep’ bereavement flight because the travel agent indicated the funeral was more than 48 hours from the time I was booking my ticket (even though I wasn’t due to fly out until Monday morning). Moreover, a bereavement flight was going to cost me over $800.00; $1000.00 if I flew into Burlington, Vermont. I booked my flight by turning in my voucher and paying an additional $236.10. I was willing to fly ANY flight that had a class W seat available and even provided the travel agent with additional airports to search in seeking a class W seat—time was not an issue. I was due to return to central Wisconsin, Wednesday, 5/9/07 departing Hartford, Connecticut at 5:20 p.m.

I made the trip to Northern Vermont for my grandmother’s funeral; drove the 5 hours back to Hartford to await my flight. Northwest began calling with automated voice messages starting at 2:47 p.m. The first message had my departure flight (NW1211) delayed