Complaints About Orbitz and Northwest

Here is an email I wrote to Northwest Airlines detailing the entire day I spent on the phone trying to get her flights straightened out. They were absolutely no help and neither was Orbitz. The basic problem was that I had booked her a multi-city trip with 4 sets of flights over 3 weeks. She missed her flight on Saturday morning and after Orbitz was absolutely no help we decided to try to get her to her next destination on AmTrak. But Northwest tells us that if she does not get on the plane she will have the rest of her trip cancelled. I offered to pay their change fee if they don't make her wait until Tuesday to leave, but they said no, unless she gets on the plane her trip will be cancelled.

This is the most outrageous and absurd thing I have ever heard. I am extremely angry and will never use Northwest, or Orbitz, again.

Email below:
My grandmother missed her flight to Cleveland from LaGuardia this morning even though she was at the airport with plenty of time. Between the time waiting on the lines and her difficulty walking quickly it took her almost 2 hours to get checked in and by the time she was the flight had left.

She is going to see terminally ill relatives in Pennsylvania and she wants to get there ASAP. I called and spoke to an agent who told me that it would cost well over $1,000 to get her to Erie tomorrow but they could do it on Tuesday.

Then she goes on to tell me that if my grandmother does not fly from LaGuardia to Erie they will cancel the rest of her flights. She was willing to pay for an alternate method of getting there on her own, so I don't understand this policy. So I ask to speak to a supervisor and am on hold for ONE HOUR AND A HALF. Finally I call from my cell phone and get to a supervisor who confirms this absolutely ridiculous policy that if she does not fly from LGA to ERI the rest of her 3 week trip will be cancelled. I offered to pay the change fee and asked if she could still take AmTrak and we will GO TO THE AIRPORT to check her in ourselves. I was told, no, unless she gets on the plane the rest of her THREE WEEK trip will be cancelled. We were willing to pay for her to get there on our own, pay your ridiculous change fee, but I was told that the rest of the flight would still be cancelled.

Then after waiting on hold for another half hour with the supervisor I pay the change fee, change it to Tuesday, and she tells me that they need to charge me a $15 call center fee. So I have been on the phone on HOLD for TWO AND A HALF hours now and I have to pay $15 for the privilege of wasting my afternoon dealing with these ridiculous rules and restrictions.

We are all extremely unhappy and will probably never fly with you again. I would like the last 3 hours of my life back that I wasted on hold waiting for someone who NEVER EVEN ANSWERED the phone.

My grandmother is almost 80 years old and all her sisters and brothers are going to be dead within months and you just robbed her of her chance to spend more than a few days with them. You should be ashamed.