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As some have requested in another thread, I will relate the story of me, my wife and our menagerie traveling across this wonderful nation I now call home
Items to transport:
Me, My wife, 5 cats and 2 ferrets.
Departing: South Bend, Indiana
Target destination: Yakima, Washington
Per the web site (having done a lot of research as I don't want to stress the animals any more than I have to) I book the flights on NWA.com, and then call customer service to book the animals.
Told that the flights from Seattle to Yakima do not transport animals, so will have to end flight in Seattle. Not a problem - my company gives a very generous moving allowance, so I book a People carrier to get from Seattle to Yakima. Then I am told that ferrets are not pets
, and they have to go freight - not available from South Bend, so I make arrangements for a work colleague to take them to Kalamazoo, Michigan (This will become significant later)
So bookings are made, fees are paid and everything seems to be organized.
Day of flight - should be a 12 hour journey
Show up at South Bend airport, and check in the 5 cats and our luggage. Wander off to store to get coffee. About 5 minutes later we are being pages back to the check in desk. Evidently at South Bend they can only take one animal per flight, and they can only travel with their owners. Not intending to call up another 3 people to join flights I ask what can be done.
Cue a 15 minute wait while they decide what can be done.
They come back
- sorry we can't do anything her, but there is a plane that departs from Kalamazoo that can take all the animals on one flight.
- OK. how about transport?
- Your problem, but we have this voucher for $250 each of your next flight.
As I have a deadline to get into my new location tomorrow, we end up doing a one way rental to Kalamazoo ($100) - During this, they manage to get only 1/2 our luggage off the flight, the rest is going to Seattle without us.
[And we really look a picture with 5 wailing cats perched on a luggage cart]
At Kalamazoo we book the cats in for the 2nd time, and fortunately find out the ferrets have gone on an earlier flight.
While sitting on the tarmac waiting to pull away from the gate, and being handed our receipt for the cats (should have been 5 receipts, but the person loading them didn't keep hold of the paperwork - we would have raised another fuss, but we had seen the cats actually loaded onto the plain from our vantage point) the pilot discovers a fault with the plane, and we have to get off and wait for the mechanic. As Kalamazoo is a small airport, they do not have a mechanic there, so they have to wait to get one flown in from Detroit.
2 hours pass (very slowly)
We see other passengers from our flight going to the gate, but nothing has been said to us. We go to the check-in, and we are only then told that our plane will be delayed 6 hours. Hmm... still doesn't get me to work on time.
I ask if we are still booked on the flight from Detroit.
- Yes we are. We can put you up in a hotel either here or Detroit.
- What about not paying for 2 adults and 5 cats (and good luck getting a hotel that will take that many) and paying for a one way rental to Detroit?
- Sorry, can't do that
I decide not to risk the company trying to get us in a hotel anywhere, and take another one way rental from Kalamazoo to Detroit ($120)
I'm not going to tell you exactly how fast I drove to get to Detroit until Status of Limitations runs out........
Check in to Detroit with 30 minutes to spare, and check in the cats for the 3rd time that day.
Finally make it to Seattle, and call cargo to see when they shut. Now, they say.
My poor ferrets.. 
Fortunately one of them takes pity on me and agrees to hold cargo open for me for a few minutes.
Make it to the luggage area, and my wife goes about getting the animals and baggage from our trip. I see about our luggage that arrived earlier (we know this because while waiting at Detroit, NWA does actually call us and let us know it's at Seattle). The can't find it. I leave my wife trying to sort this out, and go and get the rental car. Get to cargo, and pick up our precious 2. Get back to the terminal to load baggage. They can't find our luggage, and claim it was never sent. After 30 minutes going back and forth with this, baggage claim actually bothers to scan our baggage claim tickets, and find they do have it. Cue 15 minutes while they search for it. They do eventually find it - in the baggage claim office. Now comes trying to get everything out. We ask for a cart
- We don't have any you can use.
- What about that big flat trolley over there?
- That's for our use.
- Well, I'm going to use it
- You can't
- Come with me if you think we are going to take it, but you have caused us to be 11 hours late, we have 4 large pieces of luggage and 5 cat carriers. I'm going to use it.
- Well, OK.
Yes, this epic journey made us arrive in Seattle 11 (yes ELEVEN) hours later than scheduled, put kitties and ferrets under extra stress because of the extra coop up time, and after all that I still did not get to work on time because after all that all I was going to do was get to the nearest pet friendly hotel, and crash ($150 with Pet fees)
Contacted customer service to see if anything could be done about the expenses I incurred, but they do not reimburse for that (That sounds familiar.. where did I hear that before?)
This is the reason I will not be flying NWA
Items to transport:
Me, My wife, 5 cats and 2 ferrets.
Departing: South Bend, Indiana
Target destination: Yakima, Washington
Per the web site (having done a lot of research as I don't want to stress the animals any more than I have to) I book the flights on NWA.com, and then call customer service to book the animals.
Told that the flights from Seattle to Yakima do not transport animals, so will have to end flight in Seattle. Not a problem - my company gives a very generous moving allowance, so I book a People carrier to get from Seattle to Yakima. Then I am told that ferrets are not pets
, and they have to go freight - not available from South Bend, so I make arrangements for a work colleague to take them to Kalamazoo, Michigan (This will become significant later)So bookings are made, fees are paid and everything seems to be organized.
Day of flight - should be a 12 hour journey
Show up at South Bend airport, and check in the 5 cats and our luggage. Wander off to store to get coffee. About 5 minutes later we are being pages back to the check in desk. Evidently at South Bend they can only take one animal per flight, and they can only travel with their owners. Not intending to call up another 3 people to join flights I ask what can be done.
Cue a 15 minute wait while they decide what can be done.
They come back
- sorry we can't do anything her, but there is a plane that departs from Kalamazoo that can take all the animals on one flight.
- OK. how about transport?
- Your problem, but we have this voucher for $250 each of your next flight.
As I have a deadline to get into my new location tomorrow, we end up doing a one way rental to Kalamazoo ($100) - During this, they manage to get only 1/2 our luggage off the flight, the rest is going to Seattle without us.
[And we really look a picture with 5 wailing cats perched on a luggage cart]
At Kalamazoo we book the cats in for the 2nd time, and fortunately find out the ferrets have gone on an earlier flight.
While sitting on the tarmac waiting to pull away from the gate, and being handed our receipt for the cats (should have been 5 receipts, but the person loading them didn't keep hold of the paperwork - we would have raised another fuss, but we had seen the cats actually loaded onto the plain from our vantage point) the pilot discovers a fault with the plane, and we have to get off and wait for the mechanic. As Kalamazoo is a small airport, they do not have a mechanic there, so they have to wait to get one flown in from Detroit.
2 hours pass (very slowly)
We see other passengers from our flight going to the gate, but nothing has been said to us. We go to the check-in, and we are only then told that our plane will be delayed 6 hours. Hmm... still doesn't get me to work on time.
I ask if we are still booked on the flight from Detroit.
- Yes we are. We can put you up in a hotel either here or Detroit.
- What about not paying for 2 adults and 5 cats (and good luck getting a hotel that will take that many) and paying for a one way rental to Detroit?
- Sorry, can't do that
I decide not to risk the company trying to get us in a hotel anywhere, and take another one way rental from Kalamazoo to Detroit ($120)
I'm not going to tell you exactly how fast I drove to get to Detroit until Status of Limitations runs out........
Check in to Detroit with 30 minutes to spare, and check in the cats for the 3rd time that day.
Finally make it to Seattle, and call cargo to see when they shut. Now, they say.
My poor ferrets.. Fortunately one of them takes pity on me and agrees to hold cargo open for me for a few minutes.Make it to the luggage area, and my wife goes about getting the animals and baggage from our trip. I see about our luggage that arrived earlier (we know this because while waiting at Detroit, NWA does actually call us and let us know it's at Seattle). The can't find it. I leave my wife trying to sort this out, and go and get the rental car. Get to cargo, and pick up our precious 2. Get back to the terminal to load baggage. They can't find our luggage, and claim it was never sent. After 30 minutes going back and forth with this, baggage claim actually bothers to scan our baggage claim tickets, and find they do have it. Cue 15 minutes while they search for it. They do eventually find it - in the baggage claim office. Now comes trying to get everything out. We ask for a cart
- We don't have any you can use.
- What about that big flat trolley over there?
- That's for our use.
- Well, I'm going to use it
- You can't
- Come with me if you think we are going to take it, but you have caused us to be 11 hours late, we have 4 large pieces of luggage and 5 cat carriers. I'm going to use it.
- Well, OK.
Yes, this epic journey made us arrive in Seattle 11 (yes ELEVEN) hours later than scheduled, put kitties and ferrets under extra stress because of the extra coop up time, and after all that I still did not get to work on time because after all that all I was going to do was get to the nearest pet friendly hotel, and crash ($150 with Pet fees)
Contacted customer service to see if anything could be done about the expenses I incurred, but they do not reimburse for that (That sounds familiar.. where did I hear that before?)
This is the reason I will not be flying NWA
? They make little sweaters for them and everything. I've always considered them pets...
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