Okay… for those of you who are faithful followers of our blog, you know that (a la Steve Martin and John Candy) I am trying to get home for the holidays. Unfortunately, home is closed. All the interstates into Colorado have been shut down, flights are cancelled, the snow’s still falling, the wind’s still blowing. All that good stuff. So, I turn to Northwest Airlines to save the day. You see, last night I spoke to a very pleasant call center operator named Nick who advised me to enjoy being wherever I was and just to wait and see… Nick also assured me that there were weather waiver procedures in place, and that I should call again today if my flight ended up being cancelled and they’d get me to Denver as soon as possible.

Well… here’s what is currently says on the DIA website: “Based on current weather forecasts and safety considerations, Denver International Airport will remain closed through Thursday night and into Friday morning, December 22. DIA hopes to resume flights at noon Friday.”

So I called NWA. I navigated my way through their automated menu. The friendly pre-recorded female voice told me I was being connected to an agent. Then I got a less welcome pre-recorded male voice telling me “Thank you for calling Northwest KLM. Due to extremely heavy call volumes, we are unable to complete your call at this time.” I was referred to the website or advised to “try [my] call again later. Thank you.” And then disconnected. I don’t even get the option of being on hold for 3 hours… which I would gladly do. They just kicked me off. So now I’m calling over and over, submitting what I hope might be the right online form…

I understand that their call volume is high, and I understand that sometimes Mother Nature just kicks our butts and there’s nothing we can do about it. But let me listen to endless muzak on speaker phone while I try to distract myself. Don’t just shut me down entirely.

Sorry… that was sort of a cathartic post. But the fact is, the companies that remain extraordinary and inspire extraordinary loyalty are the companies who, even in extraordinary circumstances, still manage to be there for their customers. And the companies who can’t even answer the phone… well…

Wish me luck.

UPDATE: After many phone calls, many disconnects, a few busy signals, some very tricky menus and some truly horrible muzak, I am pleased to announce I might be home for Christmas.  Thanks to Danielle from Northwest Airlines and Theresa from Orbitz - as long as Mother Nature cooperates, I’ll be home Christmas Eve.  Everybody think melty thoughts.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 9:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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